"Hard Freight" by Alison Fairbrother

Photo by Graylen Gatewood

Alison Fairbrother is an Associate Editor for Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. A graduate from Brown University, Alison received her MFA at Stony Brook University, teaching creative writing. A D.C. resident for five years, her work has appeared in local publications like the Washington Spectator, the Washington Monthly, as well as Creative Nonfiction. Alison was the executive director at the non-partisan Public Trust Project, starting her writing career in investigative journalism. She is debuting her first novel The Catch, in the summer of 2022, published by Random House. Alison now resides in Brooklyn. 

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Piper Finan is graduating from the American university with a BA in sociology, and a minor in literature. With three years of experience at the American University Library, she has strengthened her skills as a literary citizen. A passion for writing has afforded her the curiosity to be a part of the publishing industry as both a reader and writer, mainly non-fiction essay writing.

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Introduction to "Hard Freight"
by Piper Finan

Reading Alison Fairbrother is to read the past, present, and hopeful glimmers of the future. Her words take the audience by the hand, cleverly guiding them through a complex analysis of our global environment. A natural storyteller, Fairbrother's work is carefully underscored with human emotion, searching for our fleeting connection to the natural world. She holds on to this link, allowing readers to find meaning through ecological preservation. An advocate for art, Fairbrother’s words are paint on canvas. As an Associate Editor, Fairbrother works for Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. After graduating from Brown University, Fairbrother received her MFA at Stony Brook University, where she taught creative writing. This passion is palpable. A Washington D.C. resident for five years, her work has appeared in local publications like the Washington Spectator, the Washington Monthly, as well as Creative Nonfiction, and The Southampton Review. Speaking with Fairbrother, wisdom leaps through her words, as anecdotes outline her non-linear career path in the publishing industry. As much as her work is investigative and informative, her passion comes to fruition through creative liberty.

Fairbrother’s break in the industry fell upon her lap in ways, as her mentor and MFA program director employed her as a cultural fact-checker. Here, she was able to copy, edit and create. Quickly she realized her desire to tell stories of her own, not just report as a journalist. Well-informed, Fairbrother’s writing provides the critical lens of an environmentally aware social context in her non-fiction writing. Evoking a sense of nostalgia, her stories craft incredible scenes of nature, coming alive through the relationship between humans and earth. Her short story “Hard Freight” appears in the Grace & Gravity publication exploring meanings of home through location within her work. This special locality positions her novel The Catch, debuting in the summer of 2022, published by Random House, within the white marble halls of D.C. She describes Washington as feeling smart, yet out of touch, pointing out the disconnect she identified within her non-profit work in the nation’s capital. Close to unreachable power, she felt a lack of community connection.

Among her literary works, Fairbrother was the executive director of the non-partisan Public Trust Project. Investigating scientific authenticity in journalism, the organization focused on the authenticity of media outlets, cooperations, and government entities. Committed to upholding accuracy within scientific reporting, Fairbrother utilizes her journalistic and creative writing skills from her nonprofit experience. While working in Washington, her writing explored the intersections of environmental science and climate advocacy. Her work continues to redefine investigative journalism, brilliantly threading her stories with scientific inquiry. When asked about her drive for the industry, she attributes this to her dream of empowering female writers. She highlights the importance of sharing beauty through writing, acknowledging the lack of diversity in the industry, and hoping for the inclusion of marginalized stories. Although Fairbrother’s work draws on experiences in the natural world, this came along later in life. She describes this as an experience of personal renewal, finding her love for nature through journalism. 

​Investigative yet imaginative, Fairbrother’s work examines the connection between literary journalism and the exploration of the natural world. Her essay, “What Fish Oil Pills Are Hiding,” co-authored by David Schleifer, serves as social commentary delving into the Menhaden fish population in Maryland’s port of the Chesapeake Bay. Gracefully combining politics with a stark ecological awareness, Fairbrother’s work transports her readers through intern Julie Vanderslice’s expose of the environmental degradation caused by the fish oil industry. She is able to research complex topics, using easily read characters and a captivating voice. Unknowingly, the audience becomes an expert alongside her. Her writing is accessible, as she shares scientific knowledge through tactical literary citizenship. She positions an important locality through her exploration of Menhaden fish, highlighting their population as an integral community member: a neighbor we should care about. Similarly, this style is read in “Hard Freight,” as her writing is interactive and purposeful, exploring topics of meaning through an investigative analysis.

The Catch, Fairbrother’s up-and-coming novel mourns the loss of a character Ellie Adler’s, beloved father James. Sifting through what our loved ones leave behind, she questions the ever-present meanings of life and loss. She asks what we are owed by the people we love and wonders how to move on from tragedy. These themes of grief search for answers and purpose through her novel, as does her short story “Hard Freight.” Fairbrother, with an undeniable ability to hook her readers, treats them as stakeholders in her stories, making the audience feel like integral parts of her narration. Her work is enlightening, emphasizing the connection between ecological and community preservation. It feels as though Fairbrother is uncovering forgotten histories, as she contextualizes lost granite and slippery fish oil into a conversation her readers can readily join. 
 
“Hard Freight,” joins two unmovable feats, a stoic quarry, and a father’s insurmountable grief: the loss of his only son. Fairbrother is able to tell the story of generations through a fairly short form. Explaining how years of heartache become debilitating, she unfolds a once-dynamic trajectory of moving granite into a dead-end path of sediment. After the quarry owner’s son was killed in a railroad incident, he vows to only create tombstones with his granite. Movement creeps into the stacked stone, birds nestle, and worms bundle to no avail, the tombstones lay untouched for years. The quarry owner bitterly dies, a father struck with the impassable monument of loss, left “granite-rich and penny-poor.” Her journalistic style rings clear, situating her story with the context of Washington D.C., using a sense of place and time to further the narrative. Her story feels personal and relevant, the reader is no longer far removed from the Bethel quarry, rather they see the stone in “the planar grandeur of the National Museum of Natural History.” She shares with us the history behind the white granite of Union Station and finds meaning through loss, setting in stone, forever a national landmark.
 
Fairbrother plays with ideas of a broader social context, with nuanced remarks about our capitalist society. When a boat sailing the stacked stone plunges into the Potomac, what was lost was a laborer, and more importantly, granite, still laying at the bottom of the river. Together, we question which parts of life are most valuable, and what sacrifices we will make for the sake of continuing societal infrastructure. Building our lives through generations of work, relying on the constant transmission of natural resources, Fairbrother’s story is multifaceted, speaking to larger conversations about the social environment we have created. Connected by the railroad, the narrative begins and ends with a death. Stylistically driving the story, the railroad caused both the death of the quarry owner’s son while allowing for granite movement across the United States. Her thematic connection to the natural world feels meaningful, and this ecological lineage is further explored through the quarry owner’s eventual death. The quarry grows full of rainwater, and a father’s note reads, “I’m going home on the morning train,” joining his son at last. Paralleling visions of her own father fearlessly diving into the black murky water of Vermont, she shares her ever-elusive understanding of him.

Fairbrother’s writing introduces a new form of journalistic inquiry, creating storylines that directly interact with living history. These people and places no longer exist in a haunted past, rather they can be found headed Westward to San Francisco, or embedded within train station walls of 21st century Washington D.C. Her stories find relevance to a modern social context while sharing what has become lost from thriving 19th-century quarries. Her ability to humanize pieces of forgotten land is remarkable, combining investigative journalism with creative storytelling. “Hard Freight” reads like a piece of sacred oral literature. There is an endless need for her voice in the literary world, situating readers as not only ecological citizens, but fathers, sons, fishers, and local quarry owners. 

​Well established in the literary community, Fairbrother continues to write. Relocating from D.C. to New York, she now resides in Brooklyn. When asked about advice she may impart upon up-and-coming writers, she beautifully references Nina Simone’s ballad “I Shall Be Released.” Fairbrother connects her passion for writing to Nina’s honest call for musical commitment in her studio recording. As writers find the stories they are meant to write, she says, this is where real messages emerge. Deeply emotional, yet historically imaginative, Fairbrothers work will continue to bring communities together through a powerful tie to nature. Her writing searches for answers to our questions, asking where and to whom we belong. Reading her work is to have a conversation with an old friend, someone who knows what you have seen, and what to make of it. Her lines look towards the natural world for the words of our shared lineage. 

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​Click here to learn more about Alison Fairbrother's upcoming novel, The Catch.

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