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NEED TO KNOW
- Roxane Gay is the winner of the 2025 Literarian Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Foundation
- Gay is a writer, editor, publisher, professor and cultural critic, whose career has been marked by advocacy for marginalized and underrepresented writers
- Gay will receive the award — which includes a $10,000 prize and a solid bronze medal — in November
The National Book Foundation has announced Roxane Gay as the recipient of its 2025 Literarian Lifetime Achievement Award.
Most widely known for her essay collection Bad Feminist and her memoir Hunger, Gay is an award-winning writer, editor, publisher, professor and cultural critic, per a release from the National Book Foundation. Gay’s literary career has been marked by her advocacy for emerging and underrepresented writers and her works’ contribution to discussions about feminism, identity and social justice.
The Literarian Lifetime Achievement Award is bestowed based on an individual’s lifelong commitment to “expanding the audience for books and reading,” per the release. The honor is presented as part of the National Book Awards, which seeks to identify and reward deserving American writing.
Emmie America
“A voracious reader with eclectic taste and a sharp eye for budding talent, Gay consistently uses her voice to celebrate powerful stories and exceptional writing, and she inspires writers and readers everywhere to advocate for a more just world,” said Ruth Dickey, the executive director for the National Book Foundation.
In addition to her own published works, Gay’s writing has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction andVirginia Quarterly Review, and she’s a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.
Gay is also the editor of Roxane Gay Books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, which champions Black writers, writers of color, queer writers, writers with disabilities and from various economic backgrounds, and writers with intersectional identities.
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Gay will be presented with the Literarian Lifetime Achievement Award at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner or Wednesday, Nov. 19. She will be awarded a $10,000 prize and a solid brass medal for her achievement.
