Colin Asher

Colin Asher is the author of The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music (W.W. Norton, 2026), and Never a Lovely so Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren (W.W. Norton, 2019). Both of his books were New York Times Editors' Choice Selections, and his work has received rave reviews in the New York Times, The New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, Nation, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and others.

Born in Morgantown, WV, and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Colin dropped out of high school and spent a decade in California, working as a bike messenger, stocking shelves in a warehouse, and driving a truck. Eventually he started working in homeless services, then enrolled in the City College of San Francisco. Later, he received a Bachelors of Science from Northeastern University, and a Master of Arts from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has received fellowships from the Leon Levy Center for Biography and the New York Foundation for the Arts.