On the second day of the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University, feminist writer Roxane Gay took the stage in McAlister Auditorium for a conversation moderated by Imani Perry, Harvard University professor of women, gender and sexuality studies and of African and African-American studies.
Gay is the author of several critically acclaimed books, most notably The New York Times bestselling novel “Bad Feminist,” which is a collection of short essays. Her newest novel, “The Portable Feminist Reader,” explores the feminist canon, featuring various feminist thinkers. It was published in March 2025.
Perry and Gay had a nuanced conversation about feminism, particularly about what it looks like in the era of President Donald Trump. They reflected both on the immense progress the feminist movement has achieved and the still-long road of work ahead, especially considering that the rights of some groups are actively being revoked.
As Gay noted, some tend to view this as evidence that feminism is a “failed project.” But in reality, “feminism is alive and well … just up against a very patriarchal and very powerful force.”
The conversation was full of powerful and heartfelt moments that made the audience erupt in applause. One such instance was when Gay emphasized that, “[when] young women and some young men ask if there’s a place for them in feminism, the answer is always going to be yes.”
The conversation included many pop culture anecdotes, primarily regarding the trad wife trend on TikTok. Without naming specific names, Gay also spoke of some women in the public eye “who understand power and understand that adjacency to power is better than having no power at all” and about what it means to have “these women in the front are who are demanding the rest of the women be in the back.”
On a more poignant note, Gay spoke about the profound connection she had with her mother, who passed away in 2025. She largely attributed her identity as a feminist to her mother, who claimed not to be a feminist but was really “the most feminist person [she’s] ever met,” as Gay said.
Gay shared that she has three upcoming projects, one a novel about the grief memoir about the loss of her mother. Her two other future works include a book of writing advice, which will be released next year, and a romance novel in collaboration with actor Channing Tatum.
The conversation between Gay and Perry was a critically essential discussion about what it means to hold the identity of a feminist in our current world.