
We love any opportunity to get to know our favorite authors better. So a lightning round of questions sounds like a good place to start. Here, we ask five quick questions (with one wildcard) about books, genres, reading preferences, writing style, and their secret to success.
Author and art history professor Katy Hays’ first novel debuted big, being immediately selected as a Read With Jenna Book Club pick. In The Cloisters, Hays writes dark academia to rival Donna Tartt’s The Secret History with a tarot twist that will intrigue fans of Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House and Hell Bent. Set against the backdrop of a mysterious museum, the book explores the dark side of ambition, the complexities of female friendship, and the allure of the occult.
Here, Hays shares her favorite gothic fiction, sums up her writing process in three words, and spills the tea on what she’d want to gossip about with Joan Didion and Donna Tartt.
1. What are your all-time favorite books?
3. Which do you prefer: ebook or audiobook?
4. What’s your writing routine or process?
5. How much of your writing success is due to hard work, talent, or luck?
Wildcard: If you could have coffee/tea with anyone alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Books by Katy Hays

About the Author: Katie Winters
Katie is the Senior Editorial Associate at Scribd who digs bikes, beers, baseball, and — surprise, surprise — books! She loves putting her librarian training to work connecting readers with fantastic books.