Thabiti Lewis is from St. Louis Missouri, where he grew up in West and North St. Louis. A graduate of the University of Rochester, he received degrees in both English and History (with honors), and the Masters in the Art of Teaching (English) from the University of Rochester’s School of Education. He obtained a doctorate in English from Saint Louis University with a special focus on American literature and culture between the 1950s-1990s and Black Feminist writer Toni Cade Bambara. While completing his doctorate he earned a fellowship at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.