Listen "First Draft - Ayana Mathis"
Episode Synopsis
Ayana Mathis’s first novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was a New York Times Bestseller, second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0, a 2013 New York Times Notable Book, NPR Best Book of 2013, and was long listed for the Dublin Literary Award and nominated for Hurston/Wright Foundation's Legacy Award. Mathis’s nonfiction has been published in the The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Financial Times, Rolling Stone, Guernica and Glamour. She currently teaches at Hunter College’s MFA Program. Her new novel is The Unsettled.
We talked about the title, her main character's agency, her focus on character and story, and myth among other topics.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We talked about the title, her main character's agency, her focus on character and story, and myth among other topics.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More episodes of the podcast First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
First Draft - Benjamin Wood
12/01/2026
First Draft - Marisa Silver (Returns)
05/01/2026
First Draft - Devon O'Neil
29/12/2025
First Draft - Ruben Reyes Jr.
15/12/2025
First Draft - Megha Majumdar
08/12/2025
First Draft - Paula Saunders
01/12/2025
First Draft - Tracy K. Smith (Returns)
24/11/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.