Ayana Mathis first novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was a New York Times best seller, an NPR Best Book of 2013, the second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. and has been translated into sixteen languages. Her nonfiction has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Guernica, and Rolling Stone. Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. She was born in Philadelphia, and currently lives in New York City where she teaches writing in Hunter College’s MFA Program.
Ayana Mathis will be in conversation with Angela Flournoy to celebrate the publication of The Unsettled: A Novel, published by Alfred A Knopf, on Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 11:30am PT/2:30pm ET. Register here!
Where are you writing to us from?
Washington Heights in New York City.
What is bringing you joy right now, personally/artistically/habitually?
It’s autumn in New York! Be gone mosquitoes and sweaty subway rides. It’s my favorite season—pasta bolognese and red wine and ankle boots. Little joys that sustain in the midst of this very trying period in our history.
Some luminaries left us this year; I’ve been listening to a lot of Tina Turner and Sinead O’Connor in homage and celebration of their lives, and too because their ferocity calls us all to be, well… better, more courageous, more human.
Which writers, artists, and others influence your work in general, and this book, specifically?
One of the main characters in this book, Dutchess, is a former Blues singer. She is, as one reviewer recently called her “wonderfully profane,” in the spirit of the Blues women who hover over the novel. I listened to a lot of Bessie Smith, Mattie Delaney, Ma Rainey, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Etta James, among others. There’s a lot of music in the book, from gospel to 1970s/80s pop songs from artists like Diana Ross.
In terms of literature, I always feel as though James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Marilynne Robinson are teaching and guiding me as I work. I return to them again and again when I am stuck, when I need some craft advice, when I need a big dose of powerful beauty. Anne Carson was important to this book, particularly in terms of the mother/daughter love threads and some of her religiously themed poems. I returned to her collections Decreation and Glass, Irony, and God again and again. I am a Louise Erdrich superfan so her work was also a source of inspiration and guidance. I read a lot of theology as well—I love Catherine Keller and M Shawn Copeland, among others—so those things sustained and inspired me too.
What books are you reading right now and would you recommend any to others?
I recently re-read Yaa Gyaasi’s Transcendent Kingdom, which I know everyone already knows but it really is just so good. S.M. Hulse’s Black River is remarkable, and unexpected. Short stories by Gina Berriault who isn’t nearly as well known as she should be. Justin Torres’ Blackouts. Some nonfiction like Myisha Cherry’s Failures of Forgiveness and Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste.
I haven’t started it yet, but I am super excited to dive into Aaliyah Bilal’s Temple Folk which was passionately recommended by some really smart readers whose opinions I trust.
If you opened a bookstore, where would it be located, what would it be called, and what would your bestseller be?
Hmmm. Maybe a chain of audiobook stores in rest stops along interstate highways—little shops sandwiched in between the Starbucks and the Panda Express.
I don’t know what I’d call it though, I’m not great at titling things. The Drive -Thru?
Bestsellers would be A Wrinkle In Time and Sula which is suspenseful and exciting but not as dense and harrowing as say, Beloved. I wouldn’t want my little store to cause any crashes.
