Gay’s work is how I first learned about The Rumpus. 2017 promises at least one more book- Hunger, a memoir, is due out in June. Her short stories and essays have been published in well over sixty-five publications, and her writing has appeared in many ‘Best of’ collections. The publication of World of Wakanda makes her the first black woman to pen a Marvel comic book. Together, these feature a New York Times bestseller, a semifinalist in the 2015 Morning News Tournament of Books, a nomination for the NAACP Image Award for an Outstanding Literary Work in Fiction, and a forthcoming film by Gina Prince-Bythewood.

In the past six years, she has had five major works come out-a novel ( An Untamed State), two short story collections ( Ayiti and Difficult Women), an essay collection ( Bad Feminist), and the first installment of a new comic book series ( Black Panther: World of Wakanda).