Ayana Gray: New York Times Best-Selling Author of Beasts of Prey

Second Life

Clique Media, Female Founder, Entrepreneurship, Career Change, Career Pivot, Fashion & Beauty, Hillary Kerr, Personal Journals, Who What Wear, Clique, Career, Arts, Business, Careers, Second Life, Career Advice, Self-made, Entrepreneur, Mydomaine, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ayana Gray’s debut fantasy novel, Beasts of Prey, captured the attention of young-adult readers around the world when it was published last year. It’s since been translated into 10 languages, and it’s even being adapted for a feature film with Netflix. The story follows two Black teenagers as they venture into a magical jungle to hunt down a vicious monster. It’s the first in a trilogy, and her second book, Beasts of Ruin, is out this week. Before becoming a professional writer, Gray worked in higher education, fundraising for the University of Florida and the University of Arkansas. On this episode, Gray shares how her first life as a researcher helped her build the magical world of her series and how she learned to let go and trust her collaborators when the time came to put her pencil down. Plus, she tells the unbelievable story of how she found a whopping 43 agents for her very first book.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi everyone, I'm Hillary Kerr, the co-founder and chief content officer of Who Up Where, and
0:11.8	this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.
0:18.9	We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting
0:22.9	aside their doubts or fears, and what happens when they embark on their second life.
0:29.0	Today, I'm speaking with New York Times best-selling author, Iona Gray.
0:34.5	Iona's debut fantasy novel, Beasts of Prey, captured the attention of young adult readers
0:40.7	and people like me around the world when it was published last year.
0:45.1	Since then, it's been translated into over 10 languages and is even being adapted for
0:50.3	a feature film with Netflix.
0:53.4	The story follows two black teenagers as they venture into a magical jungle to hunt down
0:58.4	a vicious monster.
1:00.2	It's the first in her trilogy, and her second book, Beasts of Ruin, is out this week.
1:06.3	But before becoming a professional author, Iona worked in higher education, specifically
1:11.2	in fundraising for the University of Florida and the University of Arkansas.
1:16.8	What does that mean exactly?
1:18.8	Well, part of her job was researching donors who could help fund scholarships and endowments
1:24.8	in all of the amazing things that you get to participate in on campus.
1:29.4	And she did all of this while piecing together ideas for her novel on the side.
1:34.8	In this episode, Iona shares how her first life as a researcher helped her build the
1:40.2	magical world of her series and how she learned to let go, trust her collaborators, and make
1:46.4	the leap into her second life.
1:49.0	Plus, Iona tells us the incredible story of how she was approached by 43 agents for her
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Second Life, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Second Life and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.