Ayana Mathis’s first novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was a New York Times Bestseller, featured in book clubs by Oprah and NPR, and long listed for the Dublin Literary Award, among other honors. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Rolling Stone. Mathis received her MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and went on to become the first African-American woman to serve as an assistant professor in the program.