As fans of Stylist will know, we’re celebrating our 10th birthday this year. Which means that, throughout 2019, we’ve been handing over 10 issues of the magazine to 10 guest editors.

So far we’ve had actor and activist Jameela Jamil, author and journalist Caitlin Moran and the modern world’s ultimate mother-daughter duo Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

And, next up, we have feminist writer, author, professor and commentator, Roxane Gay.

“Roxane Gay was an obvious choice for one of our 10th birthday guest editors,” says Stylist Editor-in-Chief Lisa Smosarski.

“She is a leading voice of feminism and how it influences our lives, and she lives and speaks with honesty and integrity.”

If you’re one of her 650,000 Twitter followers, you’ll know that Roxane’s interests span the gamut from the intellectual to pop culture. Her issue covers everything from politics and inclusive art galleries to her love of rom coms.

“Fall is my favourite season,” says Roxane. “I suppose part of the reason is because I am a Libra, but I enjoy the cooler weather, the changing leaves, the possibility of new beginnings as summer ends.

“I’m a writer, editor, and professor, and for the past 14 years, fall has also represented the beginning of a new semester. I’m not teaching this year, and it is strange, disconcerting to not have the rhythm of a semester, the need to be on a campus. I am left to my own devices, with a great deal of unstructured time. Be careful what you ask for, or so the saying goes. 

“I’m more realist than idealist, but I always hope my work is helping people open their minds, and expand their capacity for empathy. I explore what it means to live in this world in different kinds of bodies, what it means to suffer, what it means to survive, what it means to thrive, and what it means, in the best of all worlds, to know joy. As I assembled this issue, I wanted to give Stylist readers a sense of who I am, what I enjoy, who I am trying to become. 

“More than that, though, I wanted to highlight incredible people doing incredible things.”

There’s no doubt in our minds that Roxane has done exactly what she set out to do, and then some. This very special issue of Stylist features Senator Elizabeth Warren, British novelist Candice Carty-Williams, comic artist Tee Franklin, memoirist and professor Kelly Sundberg, astrologer Chani Nicholas, activist Jameela Jamil, and many more.

“It is fall, a time for new beginnings,” says Roxane. “I hope this issue of Stylist leads you to the new beginnings you need most in your own life.”

We don’t doubt it, Roxane.

You can read all of the articles from Roxane Gay’s special guest edit of Stylist here.

Photography: Ryan Pfluger