Roxane Gay to Receive 2024 Literarian award, Balances Serious Work with ”Sexy” romance Novel Co-Authored with Channing Tatum
NEW YORK – Author and cultural critic Roxane Gay will receive the 2024 Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation in November, recognizing her contributions to the literary landscape. The declaration comes as Gay balances her impactful non-fiction and advocacy with a surprising new project: a romance novel co-authored with actor Channing Tatum, slated for publication in late 2026.
Gay, known for works exploring themes of race, gender, and trauma, emphasizes the challenges facing writers, stating, “you have to hustle to make it as a writer. It’s challenging to live a creative life in a world that doesn’t value creativity and art. I had to make a lot of opportunities for myself in the way anyone does.” She actively campaigns against barriers to entry in the arts, expressing outrage that “some people have more barriers than others, whether it means that you’re working class or poor, or a person of color, or queer, or part of the gender spectrum.” Her goal is to dismantle “the unnecessary gatekeeping that continues to make it so hard for people to make a living in the arts.”
Her commitment to accessibility is reflected in her latest anthology, “The Portable Feminist Reader,” which features a diverse range of feminist writing from ancient texts to contemporary voices including bell hooks, helene cixous, Jessica Valenti, Sara Ahmed, and Audre Lorde.
The collaboration with Tatum on a romance novel, described by Gay as “very, very sexy” during an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” might seem a departure from her typically serious work.Though, Gay explains her intention to balance challenging subjects-such as “sexual violence or voting disparities or racial injustice and police brutality”-with “hopefully some light and joy.”
Fellow writer Jacqueline Woodson, a National Book Award winner herself, praised Gay as “out and funny and beyond brilliant,” adding that she is “showing young people that there are so many roads to becoming and living one’s true self.”
gay plans to attend the National Book Awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street, where Woodson will introduce her. She intends to wear a bespoke suit by Emily Meyer and “a great pair of shoes no matter what.”