This event is FREE and open to the general public. Advance registration required. We will not be able to accommodate walk-ups until further notice.

Rain Plan: If the forecast is calling for rain (or weather), we will move the event to a virtual platform and email all registrants by 1pm on the day-of the event to confirm the plan and provide online access.

Health & Safety: The Aspen Institute and Aspen Words regard the health and safety of staff and participants as our highest priority, and are committed to doing our part to end the COVID-19 pandemic. All attendees at in-person events will be required to show they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or, if they are legally exempt from this requirement, take an onsite COVID-19 rapid test and show a negative result before entry. This applies for all indoor and outdoor Aspen Institute/Aspen Words events starting in June 2021, but is subject to change based on revised guidance from the CDC, and/or from the state of Colorado and Pitkin County. Click here for more information, including our policy around mask-wearing and social distancing.

About Ayana Mathis

Ayana Mathis

received her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop where she became the first African-American woman to hold the position of Assistant Professor of  English and Creative Writing. Mathis’s first novel, “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie” (Knopf, 2012), was a New York Times Bestseller, a 2013 New York Times Notable Book, NPR Best Book of 2013, and second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 and was long listed for the Dublin Literary Award and nominated for Hurston/Wright  Foundation’s Legacy Award. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, RollingStone Magazine, The New York Times T Magazine and Guernica, among others.  She is the recipient of fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and Bogliasco Foundation. She was a 2020-2021 American Academy in Berlin Prize Fellow. Her second novel, “A Violent Woman,” is forthcoming with Knopf.

 This event is FREE and open to the general public. Advance registration required. We will not be able to accommodate walk-ups until further notice.

Rain Plan: If the forecast is calling for rain (or weather), we will move the event to a virtual platform and email all registrants by 1pm on the day-of the event to confirm the plan and provide online access.

Health & Safety: The Aspen Institute and Aspen Words regard the health and safety of staff and participants as our highest priority, and are committed to doing our part to end the COVID-19 pandemic. All attendees at in-person events will be required to show they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or, if they are legally exempt from this requirement, take an onsite COVID-19 rapid test and show a negative result before entry. This applies for all indoor and outdoor Aspen Institute/Aspen Words events starting in June 2021, but is subject to change based on revised guidance from the CDC, and/or from the state of Colorado and Pitkin County. Click here for more information, including our policy around mask-wearing and social distancing.

About Ayana Mathis

Ayana Mathis

received her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop where she became the first African-American woman to hold the position of Assistant Professor of  English and Creative Writing. Mathis’s first novel, “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie” (Knopf, 2012), was a New York Times Bestseller, a 2013 New York Times Notable Book, NPR Best Book of 2013, and second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 and was long listed for the Dublin Literary Award and nominated for Hurston/Wright  Foundation’s Legacy Award. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, RollingStone Magazine, The New York Times T Magazine and Guernica, among others.  She is the recipient of fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and Bogliasco Foundation. She was a 2020-2021 American Academy in Berlin Prize Fellow. Her second novel, “A Violent Woman,” is forthcoming with Knopf.