Aisha was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her writing about race and current events is often coupled with analysis of art, film and pop culture. She studied English Literature at Carleton College and went on to earn an MA in Cultural Studies and Studio Art from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Arizona. Her essay collection, The Fluency of Light: Coming of Age in a Theater of Black and White was published by the University of Iowa Press in 2013. Her most recent essay collection, Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit, was chosen by Maggie Nelson as the winner of the 1913 Open Prose Contest and published in 2017. That book went on to be nominated for the Iowa Essay Prize, and to win CLMP’s Firecracker award for Nonfiction. Her book-length essay, Borealis, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press’ Spatial Species imprint. She is a recipient of the 2020 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in creative writing.

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Aisha was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her writing about race and current events is often coupled with analysis of art, film and pop culture. She studied English Literature at Carleton College and went on to earn an MA in Cultural Studies and Studio Art from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Arizona. Her essay collection, The Fluency of Light: Coming of Age in a Theater of Black and White was published by the University of Iowa Press in 2013. Her most recent essay collection, Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit, was chosen by Maggie Nelson as the winner of the 1913 Open Prose Contest and published in 2017. That book went on to be nominated for the Iowa Essay Prize, and to win CLMP’s Firecracker award for Nonfiction. Her book-length essay, Borealis, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press’ Spatial Species imprint. She is a recipient of the 2020 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in creative writing.

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