The In-between Sky

National Book award-winning and best-selling author Isabel Allende introduced Alison and her debut novel Mostly White (Torrey House Press, 2018) at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA. Isabel Allende praised Mostly White as: "So compelling it gave me goosebumps from the very first lines." Other works include a poetry collection, Temp Words (Cosmo Press, 2015) and selected poems in Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry in California (Scarlet Tanager, 2016).

Hart’s work centers on her Black and Indigenous ancestors from New England, healing intergenerational/historical trauma, mixed-race identity, and uncovering the brutal truth of American history. Hart studied theater at Tisch School of The Arts, New York University (B.F.A.), and education at Saint Mary’s College (M.A.). She is a mixed-race Passamaquoddy Native American, Irish, Black, Scottish, and English woman of color. Hart is an author, musician, music educator and mother living in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

"Alison Hart brilliantly weaves family background, history, and lyrical imaginings into the story of a Black mixed-race family whose journey from the underground railroad to the US Civil War through the horrors of racism sheds a uniquely compelling light on the nuanced evolution of mixed-race people and their identities past and present. This bold, seductive drama winds its way into your heart and soul, lingering long after you reluctantly finish the final page."

"Weaving Native and African American spiritual thought into an immediately immersive multi-generational family saga, Alison Hart ushers us into a world of complicated betweens. Here, the past—and the passed—remain ever present in an interlocking continuum of societal injustice, unresolved trauma, and recurring dreams. In some cases this chain is bondage, in others it is an opportunity to strengthen bonds of love. Often, it is both, tying together the generations of this family, and society at large, in intimacies that span the human capacity for beauty and cruelty, while candidly reflecting on the space between fragility and resilience that houses so much of human existence."

“In The In-between Sky we are confronted with the unacknowledged American epic, a multi-vocal testament of survival within slavery and the harrowing escape routes north and south. Alison Hart’s deft sense of scene and dialogue pulls us deeply into how power is exerted in the details of daily actions across a novel that spans from 1852 in Richmond, Virginia, to the 1990s in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even as the forms of racism change, the daily anxieties echo across time and place. Once you open the covers of this book, you won’t put it down.”

“With The In-between Sky, Alison Hart once again demonstrates her extraordinary gift for bringing characters, time, and place vividly to life. A captivating story from the first page, Hart's prose seamlessly weaves together scenes of rich historical detail and emotional depth.”

“Equal parts heartbreakingly beautiful and beautifully heartbreaking, The In-between Sky is an unforgettable, sweeping deep dive into the cruelty that has haunted our nation since its inception. From the Slavery Trail of Tears and the descendants of those bound in coffles still shackled by prejudice today, to Native Americans exiled and erased, Alison Hart lays bare how trauma and resilience echo across time. In raw, unflinching prose, she reminds us that what was endured is not past but still present—yet within that presence are voices of strength, memory, and love that refuse to be silenced.”

"Traveling over great time and distance, this poignant chain of one family’s story reveals the long threads that both connect and confine us. A deeply American tale of history and heartache.”