Left Bank Books and the Left Bank Books Foundation are delighted to welcome St. Louis writer and musician G’Ra Asim to celebrate his new book 99 Problems Finding the 1: A Love Story (Sort Of) (2026). Join us at the High Low Literary Arts Cafe to welcome G’Ra Asim for a presentation, musical performance, and book signing, free and open to the public. RSVP and pre-order books at left-bank.com
99 Problems Finding the 1: A Love Story (Sort Of) is part cultural criticism, part roguish adventure. In 2004, Jay-Z released “99 Problems” and the song became an instant classic. The Grammy Award-winning rapper details the many problems in his life, except romantic love. Fast forward over 20 years, professor and punk musician G’Ra Asim is facing his own set of problems, except they all focus on modern romance. Contemplating his singledom and mishaps in dating, Asim takes the reader through a literary, speculative, and thoughtful meditation on chronic lovelessness.
G’Ra Asim is a writer, musician, and Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Washington University in St. Louis. His debut nonfiction book, Boyz n the Void: a mixtape to my brother blends memoir, cultural criticism, and personal essays framed as letters to his younger brother, exploring blackness, masculinity, and punk culture. Asim’s writing has appeared in publications like Slate, Salon, Guernica, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe. He previously served as a writing director at the African American Policy Forum and a graduate teaching fellow at Columbia University. As a musician, he sings, plays bass and writes lyrics for the DIY pop punk band Baby Got Back Talk, recognized by Alternative Press as one of the “rising Black alternative bands.”
Free and open to the public.