October 1, 2014

Roxane Gay to run “small and mighty” (and buttery) companion site for The Toast

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Yesterday The Toast announced that Roxane Gay will be head of their new vertical, appropriately named The Butter. According to Toast co-editors Mallory Ortberg and Nicole Cliffe, the site will be “WHATEVER ROXANE WANTS IT TO BE” and also personal essays and cultural criticism.

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Gay, of New York Times bestseller Bad Feminist and debut novel An Untamed State also said on her Twitter feed that she doesn’t care about publishing “names” and has few plans to solicit work. Instead, she will be taking submissions when she starts her new job on October 15th.

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Gay, who is prolific on Twitter (she live tweets Barefoot Contessa on the regular and I swear it seems like she’s in the kitchen with Ina Garten), also wrote that she is looking to “make a concerted effort to publish POC and queerfolk.” And of course, women, in keeping with The Toast’s mission.

Publisher Nicholas Pavich told Capital, “Basically, our radical vision for the network is that women should run media for other women.” Both The Toast and The Butter are committed to paying all their writers.

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The idea for the vertical, in Gay’s words via Twitter, is “small and mighty” and will favor quality over quantity. The Butter will eventually have its own domain but will be owned by Manderley LLC, like The Toast. Ortberg and Cliffe, who had talked about hiring “a Roxane Gay type” writer to help run their network were thrilled when the woman herself wanted to sign on.

Though it was a hard secret to keep from the internet, which can’t seem to get enough of Gay, or the Toast duo. 

 

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