Her most recent book is Apple, Tree: Writers on Their Parents. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Nation, Salon, and The Washington Post, among many other periodicals. A lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and a teacher at the Paris Writers’ Workshop, her achievements include a Nonfiction Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Lise Funderburg is the author of Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk about Race and Identity and Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home. In his new novel, Asim tells the story of a group of enslaved Black people seeking love, friendship, and independence in the 19th century United States South. Creative Writing program at Emerson College, Jabari Asim is the author of the novel Only the Strong, the story collection A Taste of Honey, and several works of nonfiction, including We Can’t Breathe, The Art of Survival, and What Obama Means.For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future. Also a Guggenheim fellowship-winning poet, playwright, and children’s book author, he formerly served as the editor-in-chief of the NAACP’s official publication The Crisis, and was an editor and syndicated columnist at The Washington Post. Asim ranges through and across a Midwestern African American community in the wake of the civil rights movement and the social changes of the last forty years, writing from the inside out and unforgettably bringing to.

Massive change is afoot in America, and these characters have front-row seats.The director of the M.F.A. 'Offering the bitter with the sweet, Jabari Asim's first collection of stories, A Taste Of Honey, serves up a multilayered dish.

With prose that's sharp, humorous, and poetic, Asim skillfully renders a compelling portrait of urban life in the wake of the last major civil-rights bill. Meanwhile, Charlotte Divine, the doctor's headstrong protégée, struggles with trials of her own. Artinces Noel, a prominent pediatrician, complicates his retirement plans. His erstwhile boss, local kingpin Ananias Goode, is also thinking about slowing down-but his tempestuous affair with Dr. Moved by the death of Martin Luther King Jr., Lorenzo Guts Tolliver decides to abandon his career as a professional leg-breaker and pursue a life of quiet moments and generous helpings of banana pudding in the company of his new, sensuous lover. Poignant and powerful, this debut collection from preeminent writer and critic Asim heralds his arrival as an exciting new voice in African-American fiction. Against a 1970s backdrop of rapid social and political change, Only the Strong portrays the challenges and rewards of love in a quintessential American community where heartbreak and violence are seldom far away. About the author: Multi-genre writer Jabari Asim is known for his short stories (A Taste of Honey), nonfiction (We Cant Breathe), poetry (Stop and Frisk). Jabari Asim's debut novel returns readers to Gateway City, the fictional Midwestern city first explored in his acclaimed short story collection, Taste of Honey. Jane Ciabattari, NPR Book Concierge: Best Books of 2015

A taste of honey by jabari asim