Asim in ’Our Boston’
Associate Professor Jabari Asim is one of several Boston-area writers who contributed to Our Boston: Writers Celebrate the City They Love, an anthology paying tribute to the Hub in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.
The publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, will donate $5 to The One Fund for every copy sold to benefit the victims. The book goes on sale October 15, the six-month anniversary of the attacks.
“Bostonians, in spirit and act, have demonstrated their city’s resilience to the world and inspired other victims of the tragedy with the strength of its recovery,” said Asim, who works in the Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing. “I’m pleased to be in the company of so many admirable and accomplished writers, and really glad to have a chance to pay tribute to the city and its residents.”
Asim joins editor Andrew Blauner and 37 authors, professors, and journalists with connections to Boston, including Joan Wickersham, the late John Updike, Dennis Lehane, Kevin Cullen, Madeline Blais and Mike Barnicle. The book is a mix of original and previously published pieces.
Asim’s essay, “Transplants,” addresses his family’s move to Boston nearly four years ago.
“One morning, while I was teaching at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,” Asim said, “my wife told me that she had a feeling we needed to move to Boston. We’d had only cursory contact with the city, and I loved my job at U of I. But I’ve learned to trust my wife’s instincts, so I didn’t even ask for an explanation.”
Asim said he “immediately put the word out” that he was looking for a teaching job in Boston and landed at Emerson five months later.
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