Gay’s forthcoming book is How to Be Heard (2022), practical advice for anyone who wants to use their voice to have an impact on the world.
Her books include the modern-day classics, "Bad Feminist: Essays" (2014), which Time magazine called, “a manual on how to be human,” and "Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body"(2017), a “work of staggering honesty” (New Republic) that explores her relationship with food, weight, and body image. Roxane Gay is one of the great public intellectuals in America today. Millman’s artwork is included in the Boston Biennale, Chicago Design Museum, Anderson University, School of Visual Arts, Long Island University, The Wolfsonion Museum, and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art. Millman’s illustrated works have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Design Observer and Fast Company. Her latest publication, "Why Design Matters," showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews. She has written six books and has two books of illustrated essays.
My favorite meal is a Caesar salad and a medium-rare, juicy ribeye.Designer Debbie Millman and author Roxane Gay visited the University at Albany for a conversation with WAMC’s Joe Donahue as part of The Creative Life: A Conversation Series on Tuesday, Novemat the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the University at Albany’s Uptown Campus.Ī UAlbany alum, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, curator and host of the podcast Design Matters, one of the world’s first and longest running podcasts. Whatever it ends up being will be a surprise to me. But then I get there to that mountaintop, and all I can think about is what I want to conquer next.ĭo you believe in an afterlife, and if so, what does that look like to you? It’s really kind of sad, because I want to sit in that moment, especially given how hard I work. Unfortunately, the pride and joy of accomplishment lasts for less and less time. How long does the pride and joy of accomplishing something last for you?
I don’t cry much in my day-to-day life, but a movie with some kind of poignant thing happening? I basically need an entire box of Kleenex when that happens. M&Ms have also been a balm to my broken heart. I tend to run away from heartbreak in a very dramatic fashion, like moving thousands of miles away or making a complete career change. I would have written like 20 more books with the energy I spent feeling so terrible about myself. It’s unproductive but hard to pull yourself out of. My biggest regret is that I have spent so much of my time and energy mired in self-loathing. That became something of a habit, and I would then write stories about the people I imagined living in that village. I’ve shared this before, but my first creative memory is of drawing a little village on a napkin. What is the first memory you have of being creative? I get so much pleasure from losing myself in a book. My favorite thing is spending time with my wife, Debbie Millman, who is asking me this question, so that’s kind of awkward. What is the thing you like doing most in the world?
She also has a newsletter called The Audacity, on Substack, to which you should subscribe. Up next: Roxane Gay, a writer of works both short and long.
This facet of the project is a request of each invited respondent to answer 10 identical questions, and submit a decidedly nonprofessional photograph.
Debbie Millman has started a new project at PRINT titled “What Matters.” This is an ongoing effort to understand the interior life of artists, designers and creative thinkers.