Andrea Hairston, Professor of Theatre at Smith and artistic director of Chrysalis Theatre, is also a novelist. Her innovative  first novel, Mindscapes, was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award and the James Tiptree Award She will be reading this evening from her newly-published second novel, Redwood and Wildfire. 

This event is sponsored by Smith College.

Redwood, an African-American woman, and Aidan, a Seminole-Irish man, are  performers and  hoodoo conjurers, journeying from swampland Georgia to Chicago in the early 20th century, searching for place where their gifts will be appreciated. Their journey is full of magic and adventure.

"...Andrea Hairston's lush prose perfectly suits the story she tells here of dreamers who travel far on the strength of their dreams: across continents, back and forth through time, and at one point literally out of this world... This book is an affirmation of the power of joy to transform the world, and reading it will make you sing like a bird while wishing for wings with which to fly."--Nisi Shawl, author of Filter House

"Andrea Hairston's writing has the capacity to take you places you had no idea you even wanted to go until she drops you down where you least expected and invites you to make yourself at home. Redwood and Wildfire carries us along on an amazing journey of struggle and spirit, love and loss, its wisdom ultimately coming from Hairston's extraordinary ability to illuminate the mysterious power that only comes with surrender to the things we know, but can't always see. For her long time admirers, this is the book we've been waiting for her to write. For those just discovering her work, welcome to a brand new world. Andrea Hairston has been waiting for you."
— Pearl Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

"Redwood and Wildfire works as an allegory for all paradigm-shifting artistic innovation, even though it mostly reads as the love story of two people who struggle to invoke the free, interracial paradise that already exists in their hearts."
— Carol Cooper The Village Voice, Feb 23, 2011

Redwood and Wildfire (Paperback)

By Andrea Hairston

$20.00

ISBN-13: 9781933500522
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Aqueduct Press, 2/2011

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