G'Ra Asim

Asim was born in St. Louis.[6] He is the son of author, poet, playwright, and professor of writing, literature and publishing at Emerson College, Jabari Asim.[7]

Asim obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University in 2018, and a Bachelor of Arts in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College in 2014, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Asim is an assistant professor of Creative Writing at Washington University in St. Louis.[8] Previously, he served as assistant professor of Nonfiction Writing at Ithaca College in New York, and as Writing Director at the African American Policy Forum in New York. His work has appeared in Slate, Guernica, The Baffler, and The New Republic.[9] His Salon essay, Obama Ruins It for Smart Black Guys, was featured in NYT’s Idea of the Day recommended reading section.[10]

Asim has hosted or been in conversation with other writers, including Colson Whitehead[11] and John Darnielle.[12]

Asim is the author of the Kirkus Review-starred book,[13][14] Boyz n the Void: a mixtape to my brother.[15] Kirkus Reviews named Boyz n the Void one of the best nonfiction books of 2021.[16] The book blends music and cultural criticism and personal essay to explore race, gender, class, and sexuality in relation to punk rock and straight edge culture.[17] According to Washington Post “Asim presents the book as a compilation of personal letters to his younger brother, Gyasi, supplemented by its own song, usually of the pop-punk variety. Following a similar model as James Baldwin’s “My Dungeon Shook” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Between the World and Me” — works written, respectively, to Baldwin’s nephew and Coates’s son — Asim seeks to convey caution and road-weary wisdom to his young charge."[18]