“I try to find the beauty in things. On dark days, I sit in my armchair looking at clouds and I am awed at how rain is made.” TryingMadeDarkRainCloudsArmchairsDark Days Author:Ayana Mathis
“One thing I am learning is to slow down. Multitasking is great, but I when try to do everything at warp speed I just end up with typos and stress.” TryingEndsOne ThingStressSpeedSlow DownWarpMultitaskingTypos Author:Ayana Mathis
“I think a lot about race and the burdens of representation. There's an idea that because I'm writing a book set around the time of the Great Migration, and happen to be black, I'm trying to write a definitive account of the Great Migration, the so-called "black experience." That's not what I'm doing, and it can be frustrating.” ThinkingWritingTryingBookBlackBurdenRepresentationFrustratingWriting A Book Author:Ayana Mathis
“I started writing the book without realizing I was writing a book. That sounds stupid, but it's true. I'd been trying and failing to make a different manuscript work, and I thought I was just taking a break by writing some short stories. I'm not a very good short story writer - the amazing compression that is required for short stories doesn't come easily to me. But anyway, I thought I'd try to write some short stories. And a structure took shape - I stumbled upon it.” WritingTryingBookDifferentRealizingBreakFailingStupidVery GoodShort StoryWriting A BookTrying And Failing Author:Ayana Mathis
“By sixteen I thought, "Ah, this is all crap, you're all sheep, I'm not going to church, leave me alone." And then at a certain point in my teens I started to go to Catholic churches, by myself. Not because I wanted to be Catholic, but because I wanted to light a candle and say something like a prayer and just sit there. There was something I was missing or trying to reconnect with. But it was a secret at the time. I'd developed this cynical persona and the last thing I wanted to admit was that I was skulking around churches in my spare time.” TryingChurchPrayerSecretMissingCatholicCandleCynicalCrapLeaving MePersonaMe AloneLeave Me Alone Author:Ayana Mathis