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So, I was just thinking about, you know, incorporating the voices of others. But I'll happily do it again because I'm a masochist. And, surprisingly, they said yes because anthologies in general don't do that well and they're a nightmare to assemble. And so I thought, yeah, let me pitch this to Harper Collins and see what they say. And an anthology felt like the right vehicle for doing that. And then I stopped myself and said, wait, why am I diminishing my own experience? And why am I trying to compare what I've been through to what other women and some men have been through? And I wanted to open up the conversation beyond just my own work. And I kept thinking, oh well, you know, what I went through was pretty bad but it wasn't that bad. After I published Bad Feminists, I was thinking about the essay, what we hunger for, where I wrote about sexual assault and the Hunger Games and how the Hunger Games really spoke to me as someone who has survived trauma. I wanted to know what made you put this collection together. I have been spending some time with Not That Bad and looking through this book and this moment, and it's been very - it's been intense. So, how would we like to do this? Oh, words, words, words. Also, a word of warning, while there's nothing particularly graphic or violent in this conversation, as you might expect from the book title, the subject matter is quite sensitive. There was a bit of mic trouble during this program, so if you hear any bumping or clunking in the background, that's why. Monet is a Miami-based poet and musician. Roxan Gay shared the stage with Aja Monet.
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Gay describes the book as, quote, a place for people to give voice to their experiences, a place for people to share how bad this all is, a place for people to identify the ways they have been marked for rape culture. She's at the library to talk about one of her latest books, Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture, an anthology that she edited.
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She's the author of the best-selling books, Bad Feminists: A Collection of Essays, and Hunger: A Memoir. Roxan Gay is a New York Times Opinion writer. Today on the show, Roxan Gay and Aja Monet. > I'm Aidan Flax-Clark, you're listening to the New York Public Library podcast. With writer and organizer, Aja Monet, Gay discusses how their stories fit into the national conversation about sexual assault, the pitfalls of the #MeToo Movement, the pressure to "perform one's trauma," and the complex work that still needs to be done towards healing and justice. Roxane Gay's latest book, Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture,is a collection of first-person essays that directly tackle rape, sexual assault and harassment.