Ayana Mathis' first novel, THE TWELVE TRIBES OF HATTIE, was a New York Times bestseller, an NPR Best Book of 2013, the second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. and has been translated into 16 languages. Her nonfiction has been published in the 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.

Books by Ayana Mathis

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

by Ayana Mathis - Fiction, Historical Fiction

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia. Hattie gives birth to nine children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. The Shepherd children confront desolation, poverty, and the coldness and cruelty of their time.