Hidden Gems

Hidden Gems: UA alum Ayana Gray makes best seller list with first YA novel

It's not every day that Northwest Arkansas gets the chance to host a personal visit from a glittering new literary superstar. But since Ayana Gray, author of the best seller "Beasts of Prey," is a University of Arkansas alumna, we're getting lucky. Gray will visit the UA campus this week, speaking to several student groups and giving a public lecture on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Gearhart Hall auditorium, with a reception to follow.

"Beasts of Prey," the first book of Gray's planned trilogy, was released in late September of this year and immediately landed on the New York Times Best Seller list; by the close of the month, Gray had signed a development deal with Netflix. Kirkus reviews, which deemed the book "a dazzling debut," said Gray's book "will ensnare readers, keeping them engaged with its energetic pace."

"Magic doesn't exist in the broken city of Lkossa anymore, especially for girls like 16-year-old Koffi," reads the official synopsis of "Beasts of Prey." "Indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, she cares for its fearsome mythical creatures to pay off her family's debts. But when they are threatened by the Zoo's cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn't fully understand. As the son of a decorated hero, Ekon is destined to become an elite warrior. Until a fire at the Night Zoo upends his future and, on the brink of his final rite of passage, Ekon is cast out -- his reputation left in tatters. For Koffi and Ekon, the outlook is bleak -- unless they can capture the Shetani, the vicious monster that plagues their city. ... The hunt begins -- but are they the hunters or the hunted?"

"On the surface, this is a story where you have a young man and a young woman from different walks of life, and they're going into a magical jungle to hunt down a monster, and that's what I tell people the story is about," says Gray. "But beneath that, you have two very complicated young people who are going through grief, trauma -- going through adolescence. And while they're trying to find a monster, they're learning from their own monsters.

"What they both have to learn throughout the course of the story is that running from the monsters and burying the monsters doesn't actually make them go away -- they stay. The only way to conquer and defeat these monsters and move on with your life is to face them," she adds. "And that's something that at 16, 17 and even at 28 now, I'm still learning how to do."

Gray moved to Little Rock from Atlanta when she was 13 years old and graduated from Pulaski Academy before attending the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. An avid reader and gifted writer from a young age, she dreamed of being an author, but she says that practical considerations prompted her to seek a pathway to a law degree. After earning honors degrees in political science, African American studies and African studies from the University of Arkansas, she found herself -- for the first time -- without a plan when that interest faltered.

"I started to become pretty disillusioned with the U.S. justice system," says Gray, who had pictured herself becoming an immigration or civil rights lawyer. "I had a pretty naive view of how it worked, and I saw things that I didn't love."

She was in Gainesville, working for the University of Florida in the donor relations field, when she knuckled down and finished a first draft of "Beasts of Prey." A Twitter event called #DVpit was the motivation: Created to bring attention to historically underrepresented authors in publishing, the event invites writers to pitch their works-in-progress in the hopes that a publishing agency or literary agent might take notice. When Gray pitched her book, that is exactly what happened: She sent off her first draft to a literary agent exactly one month from the day he expressed interest on Twitter.

"I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the UA's 150th [anniversary] than to bring in an honors alumna like Ayana Gray," said Lynda Coon, dean of the Honors College, in a UA press release about the event. "She's already made a big splash on the literary scene. We're excited to see how her career progresses."

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Go & Do

Lecture by Ayana Gray

When: 5:30-6:30 p.m. Oct. 27; reception to follow

Where: Gearhart Hall auditorium, 340 N. Campus Drive on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville

Cost: Free

Information: ayanagray.com

“Beasts of Prey” was published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 496 pages, $18.99 hardcover.

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