Alison Hart's new novel, THE IN-BETWEEN SKY, Honors Ancestors, History & Raw Truths
A Riveting Family Saga of Endurance and Triumph
When Alison Hart’s Ancestors speak, she doesn’t just listen. She understands the assignment to weave their messages into lushly evocative fiction that honors lineage and history by bringing their stories to life.
In her acclaimed new novel, The In-Between Sky, Alison has crafted a thrilling saga of a Black Mixed-race family whose characters escape enslavement through the Underground Railroad to Canada, then New England, fight in the U.S. Civil War, and survive the racism of the eugenics movement to marry across color lines with fierce love and determination.
She burst onto the fiction scene with her awesome debut novel, Mostly White, a powerful tale of intergenerational trauma and healing brought that spans four generations of an African American, Irish and Native American Mixed-race family.
Alison, a multitalented creative who also expresses herself through poetry, music, and dance, writes about her Black and Indigenous Ancestors from New England, healing intergenerational and historical trauma, exploring and expressing Mixed-race identity, and uncovering the brutal truths of American history. She is a Mixed-race Passamaquoddy Native American, Irish, Black, Scottish, and English woman of color, and a mother living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Check out our recent convo about The In-Between Sky:
Q: What was the impetus, the inspiration for this story?
A: While my first novel, Mostly White, focused on my Native American ancestry, I knew that was a lot more that needed to be unearthed about my African American Ancestors. After Mostly White was published, I had a dream visit from Eliza, an Ancestor from my mother’s African-American lineage, and her husband Edward. While Eliza didn’t speak in the dream, I felt her pleading with me to tell her story. When I woke up, I knew that was what I needed to do, and I began writing the novel.
Q: Are there things you needed to learn as you wove this tale?
A: Yes! It involved a lot of family research. My sister Lisa is always researching our family roots, and I worked with her to explore our history in the context of enslavement, and the context for where Eliza was living. She was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1841. The research for this novel took at least two years. And it was really hard to dive into the history of slavery. I read a lot of narratives and came across an article that Edward Ball wrote for the Smithsonian titled, “The Slavery Trail of Tears.” This took place around the time that Eliza was a child, around 9 or 10 years old. She’d have seen large groups of enslaved people chained and marched from slave pen to slave pen starting in Richmond and going all the way to the Mississippi.
That really struck me because I hadn’t known that part of history; I hadn’t learned that millions of enslaved Africans were forcibly marched, and that they could be sold along the way. That was the historical spark of the novel for me and for Eliza, the matriarch, who starts off the novel. Just as I paid homage to my great-grandmother who was Passamaquoddy and Black, in Mosly White, I pay homage to Eliza in The In-Between Sky.
“This bold seductive drama winds its way into your heart and soul, lingering long after you reluctantly finish the final page.” — My blurb on the cover of The In-Between Sky
Q: How did your fiction come to be so rooted in aspects of your own family history?
A: I was never supposed to find out our history. We were never supposed to find out our history. We—collective as Black or Indigenous Native people in this country—weren’t supposed to find out our history. So little was documented, especially with Native American People. There was no word for “Native” or “Indian” way back in the day so my Ancestors in those groups are listed as Negro, Colored, Mulatto—but never Indian. That’s another kind of erasure that I’m writing to correct.
I am imagining my Ancestors in the historical context that they lived. Basically, I bring forward the history that’s ugly and brutal and important to flesh out, to show the strength, resilience, and journeys of those who came before me.
Q: How has this fleshing out impacted you as a human and as an artist?
A: As a person, it weights heavy on me and I came to a place of really understanding that this is not history for one person, or for one group. This is our COLLECTIVE history in this country. It happened on this land. Black history is American history. Native history is American history. To try to metabolize it alone is too much. So the ways that I remedied those feelings of heaviness when finding that my Ancestors went through so much of that is by taking control of the stories in a way that reveals the horrors but centers the humanity of those who moved through these realities.
When it gets too big or too hard, when it weighs too heavily on me, I dance, I make and I teach music. Then I can sit back down and return to the writing. That’s why my book launch was a dance party, a celebration, a gift not just to myself but to my community.
Q: Who were you writing TO in this book?
A: I feel like I’m in conversation with my Ancestors—the voices that weren’t heard—trying to do them justice. I also wrote this book for my younger brother, Scot, who passed away. I wanted to honor him and our connection, our relationship, and the fact that he was deeply in touch with his African American identity, maybe because he was darker than me and had curlier hair. He taught me a lot!
Q: What do you hope to achieve with The In-Between Sky?
A: I truly hope that readers experience their own hearts and their own healings as they’re reading. Some might learn more history or feel more connected to the histories of Black people, of Native American people, of Mixed people. And readers can experience Mixed people’s perspectives and the in-betweenness of our lives, which might open them to the nuances of human identity. Right now everyone’s in their own race camps fighting each other.
Q: We’re seeing more Mixed-race stories by Mixed authors—YAY! What are your thoughts about Mixed-race representation in historical and contemporary literature?
A: I feel like my work can address the complexities of this. We are not a monolith and I feel that with any group, so hopefully my work can bring the complexity of this experience of being Mixed-race, of having so many different lineages, and being fully fucking American. I get that dreaded question, “Where are you from?” so much. I can trace my African American history all the way back to the mid-1700s. My Black Ancestors fought in every war back to the American Revolution. And I had European Ancestors fighting for the other side. How much more American could I be?
In all, a sense of wholeness that comes from honoring history, exploring the complex and often painful nuances of truth, and expressing new visions that fortify the soul.
BONUS!
Check out Alison and the wonderful Sharmane Fury chatting about The In-Between Sky on our fave MILITANTLY MIXED PODCAST!
Featuring Alison Hart – Author of The In-Between Sky
(Audio-only version from YouTube.)
FROM SHARMANE:
This week on Militantly Mixed, I’m joined by the brilliant Alison Hart, an OG Mixed Cousin who first appeared on Episode 24 back in 2018 when she released her debut novel Mostly White.
Alison returns to share her stunning new novel, The In-Between Sky, and we dive into creativity, identity, and what it means to write from that Mixed-race space between worlds. Talking with Alison felt like catching up with family, because it was. We reflected on how much has changed since 2018, how her craft has evolved, and how her voice continues to challenge and expand our understanding of Mixedness.
Grab the Book:
Bookshop (supports indie stores + my affiliate page)
Amazon
Support a Native & Queer Bookshop
Alison gave a special shout-out to Black Walnut Books, a Native and queer-owned bookshop. Buying through them helps sustain community storytelling and sovereignty in publishing.
Connect with Alison
On her Facebook Author page, on Instagram, and her website.
Looking forward to reading both of Allison's books.
Congratulations to Allison -- such an excellent book. I was entranced by her narrative -- all the characters, the coffle-walk, the torn-asunder family ties. Beautiful work, exquisitely written.