This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Andrea Hairston, author of REDWOOD AND WILDFIRE.

About REDWOOD AND WILDFIRE: At the turn of the 20th century, minstrel shows transform into vaudeville, which slides into moving pictures. Hunkering together in dark theatres, diverse audiences marvel at flickering images.

Redwood, an African American woman, and Aidan, a Seminole Irish man, journey from Georgia to Chicago, from haunted swampland to a “city of the future.” They are gifted performers and hoodoo conjurors, struggling to call up the wondrous world they imagine, not just on stage and screen, but on city streets, in front parlors, in wounded hearts. The power of hoodoo is the power of the community that believes in its capacities to heal.

Living in a system stacked against them, Redwood and Aidan’s power and talent are torment and joy. Their search for a place to be who they want to be is an exhilarating, painful, magical adventure.

About Andrea Hairston: Andrea Hairston is a novelist, playwright, and scholar. Aqueduct Press published: Will Do Magic For Small Change, a New York Times Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Mindscape, winner of the Carl Brandon Award; and Lonely Stardust, a collection of essays and plays. Her play, Thunderbird at the Next World Theatre, appears in Geek Theater. A novelette, “Saltwater Railroad,” was published by Lightspeed Magazine. “Dumb House,” a short story appears in New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl. Andrea received the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award in 2011 and has gotten grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her latest novel, Master of Poisons, came out from Tordotcom Publishing and is on the Kirkus Review’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2020. “Seven Generations Algorithm,” a short story is in Trouble the Waters edited by Sheree Renee Thomas, and Pan Morigan. Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the Otherwise and Carl Brandon Awards, will be out February 1, 2022 from Tordotcom. In her spare time, Andrea is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College and the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2022 Patrick Hester

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