I went to the March on Washington with my mother in 1963. Are the poison storms commentary on how slow we’ve been to act on minimizing the damages of climate change? This made me think of our own real life existential threat: climate crisis and climate denial. Instead, the council exiles him, forcing him to travel with pirates. Djola, the titular Master of Poisons, has tried to warn the population for years, urging them to save their homeland, and they do nothing. The emperor’s council dithers about solving the problem. In the novel, poison storms are sweeping across the Arkhysian Empire and making the land uninhabitable. So I wrote the first paragraph of Master of Poisons as a challenge to myself, as a call to action and change. I wanted to write about impossible change, about how we could decolonize our minds, our stories, our futures. Not only had we colonized bees, bats, and the Mississippi Delta, but the future was also colonized in our stories, in our imaginations. So many people were in denial or talked about climate change dystopia as inevitable-with nothing for anybody to do. But the denuding of the land, of flora, fauna, and culture was just how it was, regrettable but inevitable-Empire Normal. Chunks of Mississippi Delta wetlands, as large as a football field or Central Park, were disappearing every day.

Neonicotinoids were short-circuiting their memories and navigation centers as they slaved for our almonds and apples. They got jobbed in for this or that crop and then got transported long distances. Parasites, pesticides, and poor (monoculture) diet stressed the bees. In December 2014, I was reading about honeybees and colony collapse. What idea, question, or character sparked the premise of Master of Poisons? I read that when you conceive of a novel or a play, you start with an idea or a question or a character talking to you. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College. She has published essays, plays, and short fiction and received grants from the NEA, Rockefeller and Ford Foundation. Her other books include Will Do Magic For Small Change (finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Tiptree Awards, and a New York Times Editor’s pick), Redwood and Wildfire (Tiptree and Carl Brandon Award winner), and Mindscape (winner of Carl Brandon Award).

Series: The Tales of Gorlen VizenfirtheĪndrea Hairston is the author of Master of Poisons (out September 8, 2020).

Series: From the Lost Travelers’ Tour Guide.

People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!.

Master of poisons by andrea hairston