Summary: On this episode of the Lit Show, Deborah Kennedy talks with University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum and visiting fiction professor Ayana Mathis about her debut novel The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, which has not only received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist, but was also singled out by Oprah Winfrey for her Book Club 2.0 series. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie tells the story of Hattie Shepherd, who, in 1923, flees the violence and oppression of Jim Crow Georgia for Philadelphia, hoping for a brighter future and a share of the American dream. Winfrey has said she picked The Twelve Tribes of Hattie for her much-coveted book club partially because of Mathis’s compassionate characterization of Hattie, an indomitable heroine who does battle with the cruel forces of poverty, prejudice, and heartbreak in order that others might have a chance at something better.
