The book is unflinching: Gay describes her rape at the age of 12 and her subsequent attempt to become as large as a 'fortress' in order to make sure no man wanted to hurt her again. Her latest book, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, offers some of her most personal writing yet. Now, the Nebraska-born, Indiana-based writer (and VICE Fiction Issue contributor) is charting new territory: Her own body. Whether it's her bestselling essay collection, 2014's Bad Feminist, her op-eds in the New York Times, or her outspoken politics-most notably on display when she pulled her book from Simon and Schuster in protest of alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos's then-book deal-Gay has established herself as a voice to turn to when considering the uncomfortable and the incendiary. She generates books, articles, and concepts faster than anyone, it seems, examining everything from feminism to cooking shows, from Black Lives Matter to the new Beyoncé album.
Gay's immense popularity has as much to do with her talent as her work ethic.
