“[Screw], marry, kill: Jamie Lannister, Peeta or Beyonce.” It sounds like a conversation overheard at any table in Hawks. In fact, it was the first question asked by an audience member to bestselling author Roxane Gay on Tuesday night at Burney Center. 

The UNC Wilmington Leadership Lecture Series started off with a bang on Feb. 2 in a crowded auditorium with a combination of laughs and heartfelt advice.

Gay is the New York Times bestselling author of the collection of essays titled “Bad Feminist”. Invited by the UNCW Student Government Association, Gay is known predominantly for her writings promoting equality and empowerment but also for her lighter pieces of self-discovery and fantasies while still maintaining a sense of vulnerable intimacy with her audience. 

“Her book is different from a lot of books about feminism. It’s more modern and fresh,” said student Shawna Boston of Gay’s book. “She doesn’t put categories on feminism. As long as you believe in equal rights, you can be a feminist.” 

Gay may address serious issues in her writing and be known to her fans as a feminist inspiration, bus she sees herself in a much different light, starting the night off with a joking reference to “One Tree Hill” and her own love of the show.

Sitting comfortably on a couch while reading from her pieces made the event feel more like an evening in her living room than a university lecture event. 

She started the evening light, not with her well-known essay, but with a piece about her fantasies about her UPS man, bringing a new meaning for the audience to “what can Brown do for you?”

She kept up the light humor throughout the night with other pieces such as “Typical First Year Professor,” which she described by saying, “I wrote it so you would know your professors don’t know what they’re doing either,” and her pieces about Sweet Valley High and Miss America.

She kept the intimacy of the night going by adding her own advice and recent experiences to the writings of her younger self.

Along with the lighter pieces, Gay brought some of her darker writings as well. She read an excerpt from her newest novel, a work of fiction titled “An Untamed State” about a kidnapping in Haiti, and to finish the night, a selection from her famous “Bad Feminist” essay, ending with the quote “I’m a bad feminist, but I’d rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all.”

Gay’s effect on her fans with the combination of her experiences and laughter was obvious with the many who stood to ask her advice and opinions after her readings.

“It was a relief to hear that 41 is great,” said student Caroline Orth of her thoughts on Gay’s advice. “I was worried that I’m wasting my youth, but the advice for a young, messy 20-year-old and how she came to terms with that past has me more excited for what’s ahead.” 

As to Gay’s answer to that first question? “Well I’d have to kill Jamie because I know him the least. I’d marry Peeta because he can bake. And I’d rock Beyonce’s world.”