Andrea Hairston
Andrea Hairston is an Afrofuturist novelist, playwright, and the L. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor Emerita of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College. Novels: Archangels of Funk (Tor.com, May, 2024); Will Do Magic For Small Change (Tor.com, Oct 2022), a New York Times Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Redwood and Wildfire (Tor.com Feb 2022), Otherwise and Carl Brandon Award winner; Master of Poisons (Tor.com, Sept, 2020) on the Kirkus Review’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2020; and Mindscape, Carl Brandon Award winner.
Andrea has also published: Lonely Stardust, a collection of essays and plays. “Griots of the Galaxy,” a short story, appears in So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future. A novelette, “Saltwater Railroad,” was published by Lightspeed Magazine. “Dumb House,” is in New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color. “Seven Generations Algorithm,” is in Trouble the Waters edited by Sheree Renee Thomas, and Pan Morigan. Andrea has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Ms. Hairston was the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre. Her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, StageWest, and on Public Radio and Television. Ms. Hairston has received a National Endowment for the Arts Grant to Playwrights, a Rockefeller/NEA Grant for New Works, an NEA grant to work as dramaturge/director with playwright Pearl Cleage, a Ford Foundation Grant to collaborate with Senegalese Master Drummer Massamba Diop, and a Shubert Fellowship for Playwriting.
She bikes at night year round, meeting bears, multi-legged creatures of light and breath, and the occasional shooting star.
Learn more at Andrea Hairston’s official website
