Andrea Hairston facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Andrea Hairston
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Andrea Hairston at Voyage Into Genre Live event, St. Joseph's University, May 17, 2024
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| Born | 1952 (age 72–73) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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| Education | Smith College Brown University |
| Period | 1979–present |
| Genre | Science fiction, fantasy |
Andrea Hairston (born 1952) is an amazing African-American writer. She writes exciting science fiction and fantasy stories. She is also a talented playwright, which means she writes plays for the stage.
Her book Redwood and Wildfire won a special prize called the James Tiptree Jr. Award in 2011. Her very first book, Mindscape, also won the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. It was also considered for the Philip K. Dick Award and the James Tiptree Jr. Award. Andrea Hairston was even a special guest at a big science fiction event called Wiscon in 2012.
She is the artistic director of Chrysalis Theatre. This means she helps create and lead many original plays. These plays often include music, dance, and cool masks. Andrea Hairston is also a professor at Smith College. She teaches about writing plays and different types of theatre.
Andrea Hairston grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When she was a teenager, she helped organize community events. She worked with groups that supported workers' rights, civil rights, and peace. Today, she lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Contents
Andrea Hairston's Books and Stories
Andrea Hairston is known for her imaginative novels and short stories. Her books often blend history, magic, and futuristic ideas.
Novels
These are the longer books Andrea Hairston has written:
- Mindscape (Aqueduct Press, 2006)
- Redwood and Wildfire (Aqueduct Press, February 2011)
- Will Do Magic for Small Change (Aqueduct Press, 2016)
- Master of Poisons (Tor Books, 2020)
- Archangels of Funk (Tor Books, 2024)
Short Fiction
Andrea Hairston has also written shorter stories. These stories have appeared in different collections and magazines.
- "Griots of the Galaxy" (2004)
- "Excerpt from Mindscape" (2004)
- "Saltwater Road" in Lightspeed (July 2015)
- "Dumb House" (2019)
Collections
Sometimes, her stories and plays are put together in special collections:
- Impolitic! (with D. Notkin, Aqueduct Press, 2012)
- Lonely Stardust: Two Plays, a Speech, and Eight Essays (Aqueduct Press, 2014)
Her Work in Theatre
Andrea Hairston is also a very active person in the world of theatre. She writes, directs, and performs in plays.
Plays She Has Written
Here are some of the plays Andrea Hairston has created:
- On Display - Do Not Touch (1977)
- Signs of Life (1987)
- The Black Women’s Survival Kit (1988–1989)
- It's Not Too Late (1994), with Pan Morigan
- Dancing With Chaos (1995)
- Strange Attractors (1996, 1997)
- Lonely Stardust (1998)
- Hummingbird Flying Backward (2000)
- Soul Repairs (2002)
- Archangels of Funk (2003–2005)
- Dispatches (2008–2009)
- Thunderbird at the Next World Theatre (2014)
Her plays have been shown in many famous places. These include Yale Rep and the Kennedy Center. Some of her plays have even been on public radio and television. She has also translated plays from German into English.
Awards and Recognition
Andrea Hairston has received many awards for her amazing work.
- 2011 James Tiptree Jr. Award for Redwood and Wildfire. This award celebrates science fiction and fantasy that explores gender in new ways.
- International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award (2011). This award recognized her important contributions to studying fantasy stories.
- 2006 Carl Brandon Parallax Award for Mindscape (awarded in 2010). This award is for works of science fiction or fantasy by a person of color.
- She was a Fellow at a NASA-funded Writer's Workshop called Launch Pad in 2008.
- She was a special Guest of Honor at the Diversicon Science Fiction Convention in 2007.
- Mindscape was a finalist for both the James Tiptree Jr. Award (2006) and the Philip K. Dick Award (2007).
- She received an Older Writers Grant from the Speculative Literature Foundation in 2004.
- She has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Ford Foundation. These grants helped her create new plays and collaborate with other artists.
