Jabari Asim

I published my first story, a news article about a legally blind sculptor, in the St. Louis American in 1988 (I think). I published my first poem, inspired by the poet Henry Dumas, in Black American Literature Forum in 1988. I continue to write and, with luck, publish.“

An accomplished poet, playwright and fiction writer, Jabari Asim has been described as one of the most influential African American literary critics of his generation. Asim is a former (2007 – 2017) editor in chief of The Crisis, the NAACP’s flagship publication. For the previous eleven years he was an editor at the Washington Post Book World. His writing has appeared in Essence, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, the Hungry Mind Review, Emerge, and elsewhere. He lives in Maryland. Learn more about Asim at his official website.