Many of the relationships are with men, but the really interesting ones are about the bonds between women, and two of the most affecting stories concern sisters (“I Will Follow You” and “How”).

It is about sisters, friends, daughters and wives, although those simple labels belie complicated relationships. “Difficult Women” is about many kinds of women they vary in race, ethnicity, sexuality and age. publisher, I was interested in the way I am always curious about writers who elicit excitement when they create something new. So when I received a proof copy of her new collection of short stories from her U.K. But Gay’s reputation spread: Everyone was asking if you’d read “Bad Feminist,” and she was a veritable phenomenon in the U.S. “Bad Feminist” was published in Britain while I was working as the literary editor for Elle UK and although it was enjoyed in the office, it was ultimately not mentioned in the magazine after being deemed “too American” by my editor. Not that these debates have gone away, but they have evolved, thanks in part to Gay opening up the conversation. Suddenly the phrase bad feminist was everywhere, and Gay managed to strike a chord on how complex intersectional feminism is.

If the term “bad feminist” doesn’t sound that revolutionary from a 2017 perspective, in the 2014 maelstrom of heated arguments about what feminism means and who is doing it “right,” her collection of essays came just at the right moment. In 2014, Gay seemed to be everywhere, with Time declaring it “ the year of Roxane Gay” after the publication of a book of essays, “Bad Feminist,” and her debut novel, “An Untamed State.” The essays were exciting because she put a label on a debate that had been stewing for a long time.

In her new short-story collection “Difficult Women,” Roxane Gay is razor sharp on the constant contradictions of being a woman - the terrible mundanity and the terrible violence of it all, and the way these two things rub up against each other so fondly.

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay