He graduated the University of Illinois at Chicago, with a Ph.D.
He teaches at Queens College, The New School for Social Research, and is a fellow at the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers.
His work appeared in The Antioch Review, Arkansas Review, African Voices, African American Review, Bomb,Black Renaissance Noire, Callaloo,The Chicago Tribune, Hambone, The Literary Review, Notre Dame Review, Other Voices, Poets & Writers,Ploughshares, StoryQuarterly, Triquarterly, and XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics.