In December 2018, US writer Roxane Gay made her first ever appearance in the UK, here at Southbank Centre. 

The multi-talented Gay is the author of the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, as well as the novel An Untamed State, memoir Hunger, the short story collection Ayiti and the Marvel comic series Black Panther: World of Wakanda.

Ahead of appearing on stage in conversation with editor-in-chief of gal-dem, Liv Little, Gay met with the Octavia Poetry Collective, the poetry collective for women of colour.

In this podcast, as well as hearing exclusive excerpts from Gay’s appearance here at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre literature Programmer Bea Colley speaks to Amaal Said and Destiny Adeyemi of the Octavia Poetry Collective about their experiences of meeting Roxane Gay, the label of ‘women’s writing’ and the idea of empathy.

“When you rise to the top as a black woman, as a person of colour, you have to be excellent all of the time, it’s relentless, the pressure is unending, because people are so unwilling to give us a chance” – ROXANE GAY

Listen here