Bestselling author Roxane Gay is CCNY's 2025 Langston Hughes medalist

Roxane Gay, the New York Times bestselling author and noted scholar, is the City College of New York’s 2025 Langston Hughes Medal recipient. She’ll receive the Medal at CCNY's 46th annual Langston Hughes Festival, Feb. 13-14. This year’s event commemorates the centenary of the Harlem Renaissance, that intellectual and cultural revival of African-American literature, music, art, theater and scholarship of which Langston Hughes was a central figure.  

The medal is awarded to highly distinguished writers from throughout the African American diaspora. It recognizes honorees for their impressive works of poetry, fiction, drama, autobiography and critical essays that help to celebrate the memory and tradition of Langston Hughes. Past award winners include: 

•    James Baldwin;
•    Gwendolyn Brooks;    
•    Toni Morrison;
•    August Wilson;
•    Maya Angelou; 
•    Octavia Butler;
•    Edwidge Danticat;
•    Zadie Smith; 
•    Michael Eric Dyson; 
•    Rita Dove;  
•    Jamaica Kincaid;
•    Lynn Nottage; and
•    Carlson Whitehead. 
 
A prolific writer, Gay has authored and edited numerous books. The list includes her 2014 debut An Untamed State, the New York Times bestsellers Bad Feminist and Hunger; the nationally bestselling Difficult Women, and the World of Wakanda for Marvel. Click here for a full list of her books

Gay’s writing appears also in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, and Best Sex Writing 2012.  Among the many literary magazines frequently publishing her work are: A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Read more here.

In 2020, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride parade, Queerty -- the online news and entertainment publication that covers LGBTQ-related topics, including news and politics -- named Gay among the 50 heroes "leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all people." She was also included in the 2022 Fast Company Queer 50 list.

Gay is a graduate of Norwich University (B.A.), the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (M.A.) and Michigan Technological University (Ph.D.). 

The Langston Hughes Festival commences Thursday, Feb. 13, with a student symposium. The evening ceremony will include a reading by Gay, and a conversation between her and author Edwidge Danticat, the 2011 Langston Hughes medalist. 

Concluding the program on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, will be the first Langston Hughes Festival Fundraising Breakfast

“The 2025 Langston Hughes Festival Theme is Black Love, and we will celebrate Black Love in all its iterations,” said Jervette R. Ward, Festival Director and Chair of CCNY’s Black Studies Department. “In addition, in honor of both Gay and Danticat, this special two-day Harlem Renaissance Centennial will include a celebration of Haitian music and food.”

Both Gay and Danticat are of Haitian heritage.

About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.

Jay Mwamba
p: 917.892.0374
e: jmwamba@ccny.cuny.edu