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Writing Into the Wound: Understanding Trauma, Truth, and Language
39 pages, Paperback
First published February 11, 2021
8 people are currently reading
1268 people want to read
About the author
Roxane Gay
130 books169k followersRoxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. Her newsletter, The Audacity, where she also hosts The Audacious Book Club, can be found at audacity.substack.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
September 8, 2023
excited to read more from Dr Gay! fuk terry gross!
January 17, 2023
I’ve been writing since I was four years old. My early stories were sweet, gentle. I simply loved being able to make and remake the world, limited only by the boundaries of my imagination. And then my writing changed. p7
Scrib'd has a bunch of wonderful content-- like this essay-- that was written and/or recorded specifically for their platform by some able and accomplished authors. I've been enjoying some of this content in honor of Nonfiction November, and I'm trying not to set my save button on fire while I'm going through all their audio-essays. I keep reminding myself it takes actual *time* to listen to these things. But I mean--have you ever heard Roxane Gay read? Yeah me neither until this, and I have no idea how I survived.
This essay, WRITING INTO THE WOUND, is another essay I chose from Scrib'd based on title and was surprised about what I found inside. This time I think despite my surprise, it made sense to me, like, i was as equally surprised at my surprise as I was at the surprising essay content.
I was expecting an essay on writing, maybe even a craft essay, but Gay doesn't discuss the subject that much and it doesn't appear to be the center of the discussion for most of the essay's length. But she reaches in and taps the topic through various different windows of vulnerability. Most importantly, and most often, she centers her own vulnerability and defines what about vulnerability is story-worthy, and just as important, what about storytelling transcends vulnerability.
This is a beautiful audio-essay, I highly recommend it. Available now on Scrib'd.
*Follow my Instagram book blog for all my reviews, challenges, and book lists! http://www.instagram.com/donasbooks *
Scrib'd has a bunch of wonderful content-- like this essay-- that was written and/or recorded specifically for their platform by some able and accomplished authors. I've been enjoying some of this content in honor of Nonfiction November, and I'm trying not to set my save button on fire while I'm going through all their audio-essays. I keep reminding myself it takes actual *time* to listen to these things. But I mean--have you ever heard Roxane Gay read? Yeah me neither until this, and I have no idea how I survived.
This essay, WRITING INTO THE WOUND, is another essay I chose from Scrib'd based on title and was surprised about what I found inside. This time I think despite my surprise, it made sense to me, like, i was as equally surprised at my surprise as I was at the surprising essay content.
I was expecting an essay on writing, maybe even a craft essay, but Gay doesn't discuss the subject that much and it doesn't appear to be the center of the discussion for most of the essay's length. But she reaches in and taps the topic through various different windows of vulnerability. Most importantly, and most often, she centers her own vulnerability and defines what about vulnerability is story-worthy, and just as important, what about storytelling transcends vulnerability.
This is a beautiful audio-essay, I highly recommend it. Available now on Scrib'd.
*Follow my Instagram book blog for all my reviews, challenges, and book lists! http://www.instagram.com/donasbooks *
November 14, 2025
So many of us are shaped by collective trauma and our personal traumas. And some of us try to share our stories. We try to find the right words. We try to be truthful and fair to ourselves and to others. We try to be free. There is no pleasure to be had in writing about trauma. It requires opening a wound, looking into the bloody gape of it and cleaning it out, a word at a time. Only then might it be possible for that wound to heal.
Neste ensaio, Roxane Gay discorre sobre o trauma colectivo e pessoal, sendo o primeiro dedicado ao rescaldo de um ano tumultuoso (2020, com pandemia, a primeira administração Trump e o movimento Black Lives Matter). É, no entanto, o trauma individual e a vulnerabilidade com que a autora tem lidado com ele que me interessa neste ensaio.
There is no shortage of writing about trauma. Nearly everyone has experienced trauma and there is clearly something cathartic about writing about and reckoning with these experiences, these truths. There can be solace in unburdening. There can be solace in saying this is what happened to me, this is how I have been shaped by what happened to me, this is who I am because of or despite what happened to me.
Em “Writing into the Wound”, Gay regressa a um tema que abordou mais superficialmente em “Bad Feminist” e que desenvolveu mais aprofundadamente em ”Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body”, o facto de ter sido vítima de uma violação colectiva aos 12 anos e de como usou a comida como refúgio e conforto. Em retrospectiva, a escritora conta as reacções negativas a essas publicações: na primeira, não contava o suficiente, segundo os curiosos do drama alheio; na segunda, viu-se alvo de críticas e escrutínio em relação ao seu peso.
Gross asked, “How would you describe your body?” I knew what she was trying to get me to say, that she was trying to elicit an excited utterance of self-loathing. I was unwilling to debase myself, not even for someone that I had, until then, greatly admired. I said, “I’m tall.” That did not satisfy her. She pressed further asking “How else would you describe your body?” I said, “I’m very tall”.
Entre outras entrevistadoras que se questionaram se ela caberia sequer no elevador e comentaram a sua obesidade mórbida, salvou-se Trevor Noah, cujo espírito compassivo admiro desde a sua biografia “Sou um Crime”.
We are walking wounds.
Esta autora feminista conta também como foi voltar como professora à elitista e primordialmente branca Universidade de Yale, de onde desistira de estudar 25 anos antes, para agora leccionar um curso de escrita criativa subordinado exactamente ao tópico do trauma, visto que acredita que, em maior ou menor grau, todos transportamos algum.
Not all writing about trauma is created equal. As with most subjects, writers can be careless with trauma. They can be solipsistic. They can write concerned only with what they need to say and not with what an audience might need to hear. They assume that their trauma, in and of itself, is the only story they need to tell, or that having experienced trauma is inherently interesting. Or trauma serves as pornography –a way of titillating the reader, a lazy way of creating narrative tension, as if it is only through suffering that we have a story to tell.
É precisamente por isto que resisto tanto a ler sobre violência sexual e doméstica, sinto constrangimento e voyeurismo perante essa exposição.
I get so tired of the word trauma. It is so clinical, so desperately inadequate.
Neste ensaio, Roxane Gay discorre sobre o trauma colectivo e pessoal, sendo o primeiro dedicado ao rescaldo de um ano tumultuoso (2020, com pandemia, a primeira administração Trump e o movimento Black Lives Matter). É, no entanto, o trauma individual e a vulnerabilidade com que a autora tem lidado com ele que me interessa neste ensaio.
There is no shortage of writing about trauma. Nearly everyone has experienced trauma and there is clearly something cathartic about writing about and reckoning with these experiences, these truths. There can be solace in unburdening. There can be solace in saying this is what happened to me, this is how I have been shaped by what happened to me, this is who I am because of or despite what happened to me.
Em “Writing into the Wound”, Gay regressa a um tema que abordou mais superficialmente em “Bad Feminist” e que desenvolveu mais aprofundadamente em ”Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body”, o facto de ter sido vítima de uma violação colectiva aos 12 anos e de como usou a comida como refúgio e conforto. Em retrospectiva, a escritora conta as reacções negativas a essas publicações: na primeira, não contava o suficiente, segundo os curiosos do drama alheio; na segunda, viu-se alvo de críticas e escrutínio em relação ao seu peso.
Gross asked, “How would you describe your body?” I knew what she was trying to get me to say, that she was trying to elicit an excited utterance of self-loathing. I was unwilling to debase myself, not even for someone that I had, until then, greatly admired. I said, “I’m tall.” That did not satisfy her. She pressed further asking “How else would you describe your body?” I said, “I’m very tall”.
Entre outras entrevistadoras que se questionaram se ela caberia sequer no elevador e comentaram a sua obesidade mórbida, salvou-se Trevor Noah, cujo espírito compassivo admiro desde a sua biografia “Sou um Crime”.
We are walking wounds.
Esta autora feminista conta também como foi voltar como professora à elitista e primordialmente branca Universidade de Yale, de onde desistira de estudar 25 anos antes, para agora leccionar um curso de escrita criativa subordinado exactamente ao tópico do trauma, visto que acredita que, em maior ou menor grau, todos transportamos algum.
Not all writing about trauma is created equal. As with most subjects, writers can be careless with trauma. They can be solipsistic. They can write concerned only with what they need to say and not with what an audience might need to hear. They assume that their trauma, in and of itself, is the only story they need to tell, or that having experienced trauma is inherently interesting. Or trauma serves as pornography –a way of titillating the reader, a lazy way of creating narrative tension, as if it is only through suffering that we have a story to tell.
É precisamente por isto que resisto tanto a ler sobre violência sexual e doméstica, sinto constrangimento e voyeurismo perante essa exposição.
I get so tired of the word trauma. It is so clinical, so desperately inadequate.
February 25, 2025
damn. listening to roxane gay's scribd originals seriously made me hungry to finally dig into her longer works.
the process of writing about trauma as the cleaning of a wound - releasing what's inside, so it can begin to heal.
gay talks about the unexpected painful attention she received after publishing her memoir, and about teaching a trauma writing workshop at the very school where she endured an awful experience. then she takes us on an agonizing little overview of all our collective trauma since 2016 - the election of a dictator, rescindment of human rights, bitter isolation of a global pandemic, continued violation of black bodies, the sheer hopelessness of it all. made me cry and i hated it, but it's the washing of the wound.
the process of writing about trauma as the cleaning of a wound - releasing what's inside, so it can begin to heal.
gay talks about the unexpected painful attention she received after publishing her memoir, and about teaching a trauma writing workshop at the very school where she endured an awful experience. then she takes us on an agonizing little overview of all our collective trauma since 2016 - the election of a dictator, rescindment of human rights, bitter isolation of a global pandemic, continued violation of black bodies, the sheer hopelessness of it all. made me cry and i hated it, but it's the washing of the wound.
January 10, 2023
I will never get enough of Roxane Gay’s words.
October 22, 2024
such an interesting exploration into the nuances of writing about trauma. i love hearing writers talk about their process, and gay’s look back at how her writing evolved until she was able to directly write about her trauma was very reflective. really harrowing to hear about how she’s been re-traumatized by the publishing industry and the media’s horrible treatment of her based on her race and size.
i haven’t read any of roxane gay’s other work, and this seems like an insightful overview of one of the threads that runs through her writing. she’s always been on my radar but i feel especially inclined to read more of her work now that i’ve read this. super impressed by her perspective and ability to connect the personal with broader issues in the world. a quick and engaging read that i would recommend to anyone that’s a fan of memoirs, especially!
i haven’t read any of roxane gay’s other work, and this seems like an insightful overview of one of the threads that runs through her writing. she’s always been on my radar but i feel especially inclined to read more of her work now that i’ve read this. super impressed by her perspective and ability to connect the personal with broader issues in the world. a quick and engaging read that i would recommend to anyone that’s a fan of memoirs, especially!
November 23, 2022
I think that Roxane Gay is one of the more interesting public thinkers of our day, and I always appreciate reading her work on contemporary events and topics. I also follow her here on Goodreads and turn to her feed for book suggestions. This very short book, beautifully read by the author, on her experiences after publishing Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body--a very personal memoir that shares her responses to a traumatic event in her youth--and the bizarre, problematic interpretations and reactions that were then reflected back on her by some readers and the media was painful and honest. I was particularly interested in her thoughts on Yale and New Haven, both deeply weird places. I lived in New Haven for what now feels like 100 years as the partner of a graduate student, and I worked at Yale's Rare Book and Manuscript library for several of those years. I look back on that time as one might recall a surrealist film one once saw: many moments were extraordinary and magical, but also I remember a lot of sliced eyeballs.
January 2, 2024
I find it hard to describe just how terrifyingly good she is at writing. This was such a short piece and yet it packs in so much about the issues and benefits of writing about personal traumas through Gay's own experiences after the release of Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body.
I think this only exists behind Scribd's subscription paywall, but there's also a panel discussion from Yale that seems to be the precursor for this essay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWe8F...
Dr. Gay's required reading list for writing about trauma:
1. Possessing the Secret of Joy
2. Heart Berries
3. Bastard Out of Carolina
4. The Chronology of Water
5. Heavy
6. Disgrace
I think this only exists behind Scribd's subscription paywall, but there's also a panel discussion from Yale that seems to be the precursor for this essay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWe8F...
Dr. Gay's required reading list for writing about trauma:
1. Possessing the Secret of Joy
2. Heart Berries
3. Bastard Out of Carolina
4. The Chronology of Water
5. Heavy
6. Disgrace
January 12, 2025
“We are walking wounds”
“To change the world we need to face what’s become of it. To heal a trauma we need to understand the extend of it.”
“To change the world we need to face what’s become of it. To heal a trauma we need to understand the extend of it.”
January 17, 2025
Yet another strong, clear Roxane Gay essay. I mean, is there any other kind?
November 23, 2023
love you roxanne gay 🫶🏻
August 27, 2024
I recently listened to Roxane Gay’s essay "Writing into the Wound: Understanding Trauma, Truth, and Language" on Everand during my commute to work—trying not to get hit by a bus as I wore my headphones, attempting to look mysterious. I'm always in awe of Roxane Gay's brilliance, and this essay only deepened that admiration. It reflects on her experience teaching a writing workshop on trauma at Yale and explores what it means to hold space for stories of pain and resilience.
Roxane Gay is a masterful writer, particularly when it comes to the language of trauma. She writes with such tenderness and care, navigating the delicate terrain of what I would call ethical trauma writing. In the essay, she touches on the trauma caused by Trump's presidency, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, reminding us that to heal from trauma, we must first understand the extent of it.
Writing about trauma, particularly something as devastating as sexual assault, requires astonishing honesty. As writers, we bear the responsibility of not only telling our own stories but also being prepared to handle our trauma and that of others. Writing about trauma is a form of reckoning—a way to make sense of suffering and its impact on our lives. Whether it’s the aftermath of sexual violence, enduring a natural disaster, or coping with historical trauma, these experiences shape us in profound ways. And to discuss them, we need the language to do so with integrity.
But how do we write about trauma in ethical ways?
How do we convey the realities of trauma and its aftermath without it becoming exploitative?
How do we write about trauma without traumatizing the reader?
How do we write about trauma without re-traumatizing ourselves, especially when dealing with our personal experiences?
How do we write about trauma without cannibalizing our own experiences?
How do we write about the traumatic experiences of others without transgressing their boundaries or invading their privacy?
Roxane Gay is a masterful writer, particularly when it comes to the language of trauma. She writes with such tenderness and care, navigating the delicate terrain of what I would call ethical trauma writing. In the essay, she touches on the trauma caused by Trump's presidency, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, reminding us that to heal from trauma, we must first understand the extent of it.
Writing about trauma, particularly something as devastating as sexual assault, requires astonishing honesty. As writers, we bear the responsibility of not only telling our own stories but also being prepared to handle our trauma and that of others. Writing about trauma is a form of reckoning—a way to make sense of suffering and its impact on our lives. Whether it’s the aftermath of sexual violence, enduring a natural disaster, or coping with historical trauma, these experiences shape us in profound ways. And to discuss them, we need the language to do so with integrity.
But how do we write about trauma in ethical ways?
How do we convey the realities of trauma and its aftermath without it becoming exploitative?
How do we write about trauma without traumatizing the reader?
How do we write about trauma without re-traumatizing ourselves, especially when dealing with our personal experiences?
How do we write about trauma without cannibalizing our own experiences?
How do we write about the traumatic experiences of others without transgressing their boundaries or invading their privacy?
September 29, 2022
Roxane Gay’s writing makes me glad to be alive.
January 21, 2024
Yo creo que Roxanne Gay no es la autora para mí. Si bien este pequeño libro me pareció interesante, dado que Gay reflexiona sobre el oficio de escribir sobre la experiencia del trauma, y la importancia de escribir bien (como siempre proclamara García Márquez), siempre me quedó con la sensación de qué algo falta (o sobra) en los libros de la autora. Quizá en este caso sea consecuencia de que es un libro extremadamente corto, y que hay muchos aspectos que me hubiera gustado ver más desarrollados. Por ejemplo, Gay habla de su experiencia en la universidad, de cómo se sentía extraña y que no encajaba; y luego sobre los libros que han sido fundamentales para aprender a escribir sobre sus propios traumas, especialmente el abuso que sufrió de niña y que la llevó a ser una mujer de talla grande, algo que la ha marcado por siempre, pero todo parece de manera superficial. Sin embargo, me quedo con esta lista de títulos que la marcaron y con la idea que, aunque Roxanne Gay sabe del oficio de escribir, hay algo en el que no logro conectar de su escritura.
___
I think Roxanne Gay is not the author for me. While I found this book interesting, as Gay dwells on the craft of writing about the experience of trauma, and the importance of writing well (as García Márquez always proclaimed), I am always left with the feeling that something is missing in her books. Perhaps in this particular case this might be because this is an extremely short book, and there are aspects that I wished had been more developed. For example, Gay talks about her experience at university, how she always felt as an outsider; and then about the books that have been fundamental in learning to write about her own traumas, especially the abuse she suffered as a child and that led her to be a plus-size woman, something that has marked her forever. I would say that I enjoyed the most the list of titles she mentions that were fundamental for her writing but, on ther other hand, there is something I can't connect about her writing.
___
I think Roxanne Gay is not the author for me. While I found this book interesting, as Gay dwells on the craft of writing about the experience of trauma, and the importance of writing well (as García Márquez always proclaimed), I am always left with the feeling that something is missing in her books. Perhaps in this particular case this might be because this is an extremely short book, and there are aspects that I wished had been more developed. For example, Gay talks about her experience at university, how she always felt as an outsider; and then about the books that have been fundamental in learning to write about her own traumas, especially the abuse she suffered as a child and that led her to be a plus-size woman, something that has marked her forever. I would say that I enjoyed the most the list of titles she mentions that were fundamental for her writing but, on ther other hand, there is something I can't connect about her writing.
August 8, 2025
3.5
"There is no pleasure to be had in writing about trauma. It requires opening a wound, looking into the bloody gape of it, and cleaning it out, one word at a time. Only then might it be possible for that wound to heal."
Menarik bangeett!! Jadi pengin baca buku-buku Roxane Gay yang lain🤩🌟
"There is no pleasure to be had in writing about trauma. It requires opening a wound, looking into the bloody gape of it, and cleaning it out, one word at a time. Only then might it be possible for that wound to heal."
Menarik bangeett!! Jadi pengin baca buku-buku Roxane Gay yang lain🤩🌟
April 16, 2023
not what i wanted but good anyway looking forward to reading more from them
May 30, 2023
“I get so tired of the word trauma. It is so clinical, so desperately inadequate.”
“Sometimes suffering becomes more bearable when you can share the whole truth of it.”
“We are walking wounds.”
“Sometimes suffering becomes more bearable when you can share the whole truth of it.”
“We are walking wounds.”
October 25, 2023
Words to wake you up. Gay’s voice is open, unflinching and resilient. I wanted more about how her approach to writing about trauma changed by teaching it. She talked about the questions she had going into the experience, and what they achieved, but this left me wanting more about what the experience revealed to her.
December 31, 2025
definitely something I should've read 4 years ago when I saved it on scribd but still was pretty good today (even though SO much has changed, Roxane, you would not believe it...)
February 3, 2025
Super short and interesting read! I find myself loving how intentional she is in her writing. Her word choices often surprised me, but left me feeling that she chose the best word.
May 29, 2023
Real. Vulnerable. And a sobering reflection back into what 2021 was like for a lot of us in the US.
Also, Roxane's wisdom about shouldering trauma is something I needed to hear.
Also, Roxane's wisdom about shouldering trauma is something I needed to hear.
November 9, 2022
Ouvi o audiobook pro #nonfictionnovember
January 8, 2024
Empecé a leer porque pensé que se trataba más de escribir, y me enganché. Me pareció interesante, aunque me hubiese gustado más "writing".
July 18, 2024
I'll read anything by Roxane Gay tbh. What mastery of words!
February 3, 2023
“There is no pleasure to be had in writing about trauma. It requires opening a wound, looking into the bloody gape of it, and cleaning it out, one word at a time. Only then might it be possible for that wound to heal.”
This is my first book by Roxane Gay. I hadn’t heard of her until several weeks ago when I was perusing through the Scribd recommendations. I admit that back then, I hesitated—mostly because essays and I don’t go together, despite its short length (1 hr). But then I started to read James Baldwin’s THE FIRE NEXT TIME and Zadie Smith’s INTIMATIONS, and I realized that I was slowly getting into the perfect mood for Roxane Gay. I didn’t know much about her or the topic before I dove in. The topic that Gay addresses (trauma) is difficult enough. It’s very layered and highly personal. But trauma, like she says, means different things to different people. The word “trauma” itself is so clinical and it doesn’t necessarily address all its facets and nuances. Regardless of what someone has gone through in their own life, Gay treats all of these experiences with tenderness, grace, and transparency. She challenges us as writers (and people). And that’s what really impressed me. Her writing style is so beautiful, personal, and precise. Not one word is a waste of space. Each word has a purpose. She doesn’t trick you with all these fancy phrases or bloated terminology. She meets you right where you are. She holds your hand and validates you. I rarely read books where the books read ME. I felt so seen and valued. This book was so good that I contemplated reading it right after I finished it. I still want to (especially since it’s so short). Roxane Gay, I fear you might have become my new personality trait.
If you’ve never read Gay before, I recommend starting with this one! She mentions a few of the books she’d previously written. This is also a great resource for all my fellow aspiring writers! I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a physical copy anywhere. It’s only available on Scribd so you’ll have to get a subscription. It’s $11.99/month but I’m pretty sure they have a free month trial going on right now. They have both the audiobook and ebook. Also, she narrates it!! I love her voice. Top 5 narrators I’ve come across so far.
Note: I prefer listening to nonfiction but for her, I will make an exception. I’m going to be reading HUNGER on my kindle because I want to annotate everything.
TW: SA/R*pe (not graphic)
This is my first book by Roxane Gay. I hadn’t heard of her until several weeks ago when I was perusing through the Scribd recommendations. I admit that back then, I hesitated—mostly because essays and I don’t go together, despite its short length (1 hr). But then I started to read James Baldwin’s THE FIRE NEXT TIME and Zadie Smith’s INTIMATIONS, and I realized that I was slowly getting into the perfect mood for Roxane Gay. I didn’t know much about her or the topic before I dove in. The topic that Gay addresses (trauma) is difficult enough. It’s very layered and highly personal. But trauma, like she says, means different things to different people. The word “trauma” itself is so clinical and it doesn’t necessarily address all its facets and nuances. Regardless of what someone has gone through in their own life, Gay treats all of these experiences with tenderness, grace, and transparency. She challenges us as writers (and people). And that’s what really impressed me. Her writing style is so beautiful, personal, and precise. Not one word is a waste of space. Each word has a purpose. She doesn’t trick you with all these fancy phrases or bloated terminology. She meets you right where you are. She holds your hand and validates you. I rarely read books where the books read ME. I felt so seen and valued. This book was so good that I contemplated reading it right after I finished it. I still want to (especially since it’s so short). Roxane Gay, I fear you might have become my new personality trait.
If you’ve never read Gay before, I recommend starting with this one! She mentions a few of the books she’d previously written. This is also a great resource for all my fellow aspiring writers! I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a physical copy anywhere. It’s only available on Scribd so you’ll have to get a subscription. It’s $11.99/month but I’m pretty sure they have a free month trial going on right now. They have both the audiobook and ebook. Also, she narrates it!! I love her voice. Top 5 narrators I’ve come across so far.
Note: I prefer listening to nonfiction but for her, I will make an exception. I’m going to be reading HUNGER on my kindle because I want to annotate everything.
TW: SA/R*pe (not graphic)
July 18, 2024
A short, but powerful essay about Roxanne Gay’s personal trauma, as well as how to write about trauma and how to view trauma in the world today. I appreciate Gay’s honesty and openness with a world that has often done nothing but knock her down.
Quotes:
“There was so much noise and no escaping it.”
“When writing about trauma, you have to be prepared to handle not only your own trauma, but being exposed to the trauma of others.”
“I was too broken to appreciate anything about my life.”
“There is no shortage of writing about trauma. Nearly everyone has experienced trauma and there is clearly something cathartic about writing about and reckoning with these experiences, these truths. There can be solace in unburdening. There can be solace in saying this is what happened to me, this is how I have been shaped by what happened to me, this is who I am because of or despite what happened to me.”
“When you’re finally ready to write about trauma, there is a temptation to offer up your testimony, to transcribe all of the brutal details as if that is the whole of the work that needs to be done. There is a temptation to indulge, not so much in writing, but in confession. Sometimes suffering becomes more bearable when you can share the whole truth of it.”
“Writing trauma isn’t only about trauma; sometimes it has nothing to do with trauma itself.”
“To change the world, we need to face what has become of it. To heal from a trauma, we need to understand the extent of it.”
Quotes:
“There was so much noise and no escaping it.”
“When writing about trauma, you have to be prepared to handle not only your own trauma, but being exposed to the trauma of others.”
“I was too broken to appreciate anything about my life.”
“There is no shortage of writing about trauma. Nearly everyone has experienced trauma and there is clearly something cathartic about writing about and reckoning with these experiences, these truths. There can be solace in unburdening. There can be solace in saying this is what happened to me, this is how I have been shaped by what happened to me, this is who I am because of or despite what happened to me.”
“When you’re finally ready to write about trauma, there is a temptation to offer up your testimony, to transcribe all of the brutal details as if that is the whole of the work that needs to be done. There is a temptation to indulge, not so much in writing, but in confession. Sometimes suffering becomes more bearable when you can share the whole truth of it.”
“Writing trauma isn’t only about trauma; sometimes it has nothing to do with trauma itself.”
“To change the world, we need to face what has become of it. To heal from a trauma, we need to understand the extent of it.”
July 6, 2025
I had to sit in quiet for a while after finishing this. Roxane Gay narrates her reflections on personal and collective trauma, her relationship with it, and what it means to write about pain with care, clarity, and intention.
“Not all writing about trauma is created equal. As with most subjects, writers can be careless with trauma. They can be solipsistic. They can write concerned only with what they need to say and not with what an audience might need to hear.”
This struck me. Writing about trauma can feel like purging—but it made me pause. Who am I writing for when I write about pain?
And then this:
“How do we write trauma without traumatizing the reader? How do we write trauma without re-traumatizing ourselves?”
“If I could impart to my students—to anyone who wants to write about trauma, really—one thing, it would be to make the incomprehensible comprehensible, to create a space within a narrative for both the writer and the reader to see themselves, to understand something necessary about themselves.”
I listened to this on audiobook. Listening to her voice made it all the more intimate. This book has made me more self-aware as a writer, and maybe a little more discerning as a reader. Both good things.
“Not all writing about trauma is created equal. As with most subjects, writers can be careless with trauma. They can be solipsistic. They can write concerned only with what they need to say and not with what an audience might need to hear.”
This struck me. Writing about trauma can feel like purging—but it made me pause. Who am I writing for when I write about pain?
And then this:
“How do we write trauma without traumatizing the reader? How do we write trauma without re-traumatizing ourselves?”
“If I could impart to my students—to anyone who wants to write about trauma, really—one thing, it would be to make the incomprehensible comprehensible, to create a space within a narrative for both the writer and the reader to see themselves, to understand something necessary about themselves.”
I listened to this on audiobook. Listening to her voice made it all the more intimate. This book has made me more self-aware as a writer, and maybe a little more discerning as a reader. Both good things.
August 16, 2023
An absolutely phenomenal listen, narrated by Roxane Gay herself. Scribd is an unsupported platform so the audiobook edition will remain unlisted on Goodreads, but the paperback edition (Scribd Originals, Publisher) is available to review. This long essay in either format is still highly topical. Focused on writing about trauma, Roxane Gay addresses the innumerable challenges therein, including the individuality of personal stories and the unifying community nature of trauma on the whole. Gay also addresses the elephant(s) in the room: the risk to yourself of creating additional trauma by sharing your stories and the a-hole-ery and bias that still exists within publishing and media sometimes from our most respected sources. Read it. Be inspired. And get writing. The positives of sharing our stories of trauma do not supersede the critical downsides, but remain well worth the risks and self-reveals; the key is self-care and trusting the process and those who have come before.
June 23, 2024
Opening a wound... Cleaning it out one word at a time..... Wound may heal then.
~ an absolutely stunning analogy of writing the trauma
I have one difference..
I don't know any writing which is not coming from some trauma or pain...
Even though the writer skillfully transforms it into comedy or analytical description.
Having said the writing is about channelising your sensitivity to your experiences or shared experiences (all - traumatic or joyous or mundane or profound) into words and sentences invented to wrench out from inside you what you find in your heart.
Yet, the writer feels his/her writing remains incomplete as what is so much embedded in that all attempts to wrench it out in inventive sentences fail miserably.
I guess writers find their meaning in those sentences that remain un-crafted un expressed and un known to the world at large.. But they are inside the writer.. Making the writer furious to write more and more
~ an absolutely stunning analogy of writing the trauma
I have one difference..
I don't know any writing which is not coming from some trauma or pain...
Even though the writer skillfully transforms it into comedy or analytical description.
Having said the writing is about channelising your sensitivity to your experiences or shared experiences (all - traumatic or joyous or mundane or profound) into words and sentences invented to wrench out from inside you what you find in your heart.
Yet, the writer feels his/her writing remains incomplete as what is so much embedded in that all attempts to wrench it out in inventive sentences fail miserably.
I guess writers find their meaning in those sentences that remain un-crafted un expressed and un known to the world at large.. But they are inside the writer.. Making the writer furious to write more and more
September 8, 2023
A short and sweet introduction to writing from a place of trauma.
It was written during the pandemic and after the black lives matter demonstrations and sums up this collective trauma period well without dwelling too much on it or going into too great a detail.
Gay tells about returning to her place of trauma, being retraumatized through writing and teaching about writing through trauma.
She shares the reading list she created for her Yale class and gives insight into what we can learn from them. So I'm tempted to say this was a little teaser to those who want to learn more.
I know I'm going to look into those books because this topic was absolutely fascinating!
ps. I also saw that Gay now has a masterclass - on writing for social change. And I believe she is the absolute right person to teach this class. A phenomenally engaging writer!
It was written during the pandemic and after the black lives matter demonstrations and sums up this collective trauma period well without dwelling too much on it or going into too great a detail.
Gay tells about returning to her place of trauma, being retraumatized through writing and teaching about writing through trauma.
She shares the reading list she created for her Yale class and gives insight into what we can learn from them. So I'm tempted to say this was a little teaser to those who want to learn more.
I know I'm going to look into those books because this topic was absolutely fascinating!
ps. I also saw that Gay now has a masterclass - on writing for social change. And I believe she is the absolute right person to teach this class. A phenomenally engaging writer!
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