The New Salon: Ayana Mathis and Karen Russell in conversation

Mathis's smash debut, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, is an Oprah-approved novel of the Great Migration, as viewed through the eyes of protagonist Hattie Shepherd and her children. In two volumes of short stories and one book, Swamplandia!, Russell has injected real-world consequences into fantastically whimsical plots involving vampires and alligator wrestlers.