Andrea Hairston ran away from the physics lab to the theatre when she was a young thing and has been a scientist, artiste, and hoodoo conjurer ever since. She is a novelist, poet, playwright, and L. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor Emerita of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College. An Afrofuturist in league with Indigenous Futurists, stories that have been erased, stolen, or hidden call to her. Writing speculative fiction, she lets African and Indigenous ancestors talk to the future. Andrea is the author of Archangels of Funk, shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction; Mindscape, a Carl Brandon Award winner and finalist for the Phillip K. Dick and Otherwise Awards; Will Do Magic For Small Change, a New York Times Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Redwood and Wildfire, a Washington Post Best Book of 2022, Otherwise and Carl Brandon Award winner; and Master of Poisons on the Kirkus Review’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2020. Andrea bikes at night year-round, meeting bears, multi-legged creatures of light and breath, and the occasional shooting star.