The Art of the Short Story: Lydia Mathis on Desperate Bodies with Roxane Gay

Tuesday, 7:00 pm EDT September 15, 2026

The Center for Fiction
& Livestreamed

Desperate Bodies Cover

Join us for the launch of Lydia Mathis’s debut story collection, Desperate Bodies, with writer, professor, and publisher Roxane Gay.

Set in the American South, Desperate Bodies explores the desire, humor, and horror in the everyday lives of Black women and girls. Through vivid and unflinching prose, Mathis illuminates the madness of the ordinary: an overworked college safety officer is confronted by a bloody figure who walks into her office; a sex worker runs into a client en route to a parent-teacher conference; a teacher is plagued by a ghost determined to tidy her apartment.

Mathis’s stories serve as a frank investigation into the power imbalances, ambitions, and strengths that characterize girlhood and womanhood. Her conversation with Gay will touch upon these themes, as well as the importance of the short story as a tool for accessing unique truths through hyperspecificity. A book signing will follow the event.

We offer two in-person ticket options: the $10 Standard Ticket and the $40+ Supporter Ticket. Both provide the same access, but if you’re able, we kindly suggest registering for the Supporter Ticket to help sustain our programs. Please note that tickets do not include books; we encourage you to order in advance online or purchase copies at the event.

Desperate Bodies Cover

Featuring

  • Lydia Mathis headshot

    Lydia Mathis

    Lydia Mathis

    Lydia Mathis has an MFA in fiction from New York University. She earned her BA in English Literature with a minor in Classical Civilizations from Agnes Scott College. She has worked as a teacher for Teach for America in Memphis and as a teaching fellow at Coler-Goldwater Hospital in New York City. She is the recipient of A Public Space’s 2023 Editorial Fellowship and is currently an assistant editor at A Public Space. She has stories published in North American Review, Southeast Review, Torch Magazine, Stanchion, Five on the Fifth, and oranges journal. She is based in Atlanta, GA.


    Photo Credit: Lydia Mathis

  • Roxane Gay headshot

    Roxane Gay

    Roxane Gay

    Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity.


    Photo Credit: Emmie America

Featured Book

  1. . 
    Desperate Bodies Cover

    Desperate Bodies

    By Lydia Mathis

    Published by Grove/Atlantic

    PURCHASE

    With a voice that vibrates on the page, Lydia Mathis’ debut collection is set in the American South and her sharply drawn, authentic characters shine a light on what we’re willing to do to ourselves and to others in service of our desires. The madness in the ordinary rules here: an overworked college safety officer is confronted by a bloody figure who walks into her office; a sex worker runs into a client en route to a parent-teacher conference; a teacher is plagued by a ghost determined to tidy her apartment.

    Desperate Bodies depicts the fragility, strength, and unruliness of Black women and girls’ bodies and the power in being honest about their desires. In unflinching prose, Mathis takes a frank and determined look at what it means to be subjected to imbalances of power through the perspectives of young girls and adult women. With surprising turns and a touch of the supernatural, these stories refuse to look away from the most honest, raw moments of womanhood.

    Visceral and unyielding, Desperate Bodies is a thrillingly dark ride that introduces Lydia Mathis as a major new writer.

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