UPCOMING EVENTS
Wednesday April 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Wiscon online
May 23-26, 2025!
The 2025 Schomburg LitFest
Saturday June 15, 2025
July 17 – 20, 2025
August 13-17
COMING IN AUGUST
ARCHANGELS OF FUNK
Cinnamon Jones is a scientist, artiste, and hoodoo conjurer living in the Massachusetts of my mind in an alternate present or near future after Water Wars have scrambled the world. Disruptors and nostalgia militias roam the roads wreaking havoc. Invisible Darknet lords troll the internet solidifying power. Cinnamon, her Circus-Bots, and dogs (one cyber-enhanced) are part of a community of Motor Fairies, Wheel-Wizards, and Co-Ops trying to hold on to who they’ve been while coming up with the next world. Old lovers and cutthroat tech rivals show up unexpectedly and Cinnamon has to reckon with epic fails, a messy past, and threats to her community as she forges a future that can hold us all.
Run from your past. Hide from your future. Protect your present.
The Water Wars have scrambled the world. Flood refugees are on the run. Disrupters and the nostalgia militia roam the roads wreaking havoc. Invisible Darknet Lords troll the internet solidifying their power, while Cinnamon, her three Circus-Bots, and two dogs work with a community of farmers, Motor Fairies, and Wheel-Wizards to provide housing, health care and education for flood refugees.
As Cinnamon confronts threats from the Darknet Lords and the nostalgia militia, she must determine how best to honor her elders and her history while building a future for herself and her charges.
It’s not going to be easy.
“The old world has died and the new world has yet to be born; in that suspended space Hairston suggests that we make the new by performing it. The result is a novel about art and play as visionary act— riotous, hilarious, joyous. We save ourselves, as our heroine says at the start; and she shows how that can happen.”
–Kim Stanley Robinson, THE MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE
“Archangels of Funk is a tour de force of Afrofunkilicious Black Girl Magic. Like all great speculative fiction, it’s about our world as well as this lush imaginary one. Don’t miss the majesty of Andrea Hairston in this new call for resistance.”
–Tananarive Due, THE REFORMATORY
“Andrea Hairston creates original, layered, complex worlds that are a treat to explore, but what I love most is the people she creates for them. Archangels of Funk is brimming with characters who face adversity with love, hope, art, stories, history, and their bonds with each other. It’s a celebration of radiant creativity as a bulwark against despair.”
–Martha Wells, THE MURDERBOT DIARIES
“Full of magical technology and theater kid drama, The Archangels of Funk is an utter delight. Andrea Hairston welcomes us into a future of ambient queerness and eco-anarchy, where subversive heroes outsmart dystopia-chasing capitalists with their Funkadelic vibes. Reading this book gave me good dreams — and in these dark times, that is no small feat.”
Annalee Newitz, author of THE TERRAFORMERS and AUTONOMOUS
WILL DO MAGIC FOR SMALL CHANGE
“[A] beautifully multifaceted story… Highly recommended.” —The New York Times
Andrea Hairston’s historical fantasy Will Do Magic for Small Change presents a tale of alien science and earthbound magic and the secrets families keep from each other.
Cinnamon Jones dreams of stepping on stage and acting her heart out like her famous grandparents, Redwood and Wildfire. But she’s always been theatrically challenged. That won’t necessarily stop her! But her family life is a tangle of mysteries and secrets, and nobody is telling her the whole truth.
Before her brother died, he gave Cinnamon The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer—a tale of a Dahomean warrior woman and an alien from another dimension who perform at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. They are a story of magic or alien science, but the connection to Cinnamon’s past is unmistakable.
When an act of violence wounds her family, Cinnamon and her theatre squad determine to solve the mysteries and bring her worlds crashing together.
REVIEWS
“This is one of those books you start and realize you’ve been waiting to read for a long, long time without knowing. Will Do Magic for Small Change is a deep breath, a good friend, a heartbreaking, game-changing, life-affirming, truth-telling powerhouse. I love this book.” —Daniel José Older
“Andrea Hairston’s vision is breathtaking. She weaves sweeping historical narratives and mythology with the wisdom of the elders, and shines light on the pressing issues of the day. In her hands language is a blessing, and the familiar and the fantastic become magic, one and the same.” —Sheree Renée Thomas
“The entire work is filled with magic, celebrating West Africans, Native Americans, art, and love that transcends simple binary genders. Hairston’s novel is a completely original and stunning work.” —Publishers Weekly
“This book glitters with West African magic, unconventional love, and creatures you won’t forget.” —BuzzFeed
A Best of 2020 Pick for Kirkus Review's Best Books of 2020
You can purchase your book from any of the following participating stores:
Broadside Books – Northampton
IndieBound.org
Aspects of History and Future: Announcing Five Books From Andrea Hairston
Tordotcom Publishing is excited to announce an exciting deal with the incredible Andrea Hairston. Andrea’s most recent book, Master of Poisons, was chosen by Kirkus as one of the Ten Best Sci…
“This book’s lyrical language and unsparing vision make it a mind-expanding must-read.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review on Master of Poisons
“This is an urgent, gorgeous work.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review on Master of Poisons
Winner of the Otherwise Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW OF REDWOOD AND WILDFIRE
Hairston (Master of Poisons) conjures a powerful coming-of-age saga highlighting hoodoo magic and the power of storytelling and set in an alternate 1890s American South. Black teen Redwood Phipps’s magic might be even more potent than her mama’s, and her confidence, fiery spirit, and hoodooing habits may be too much for the folks of Peach Grove, Ga., Black or white. Irish Indigenous Aidan Wildfire Cooper honors his promise to keep an eye on her after her mother is killed by a racist mob.