Charles Blow

Charles M. Blow is an Op-Ed columnist at The New York Times, where his column appears on Mondays and Thursdays. Blow’s columns tackle hot-button issues such as social justice, racial equality, presidential politics, police violence, gun control, and the Black Lives Matter Movement. He also serves as a political analyst for MSNBC and has made regular appearances on CNN.

Blow joined The New York Times in 1994 as a graphics editor and quickly became the paper’s graphics director. He then went on to serve as the paper's design director for news, expanding his influence and imprint on the publication. Additionally, in 2021, Blow hosted the primetime show called "Prime with Charles M. Blow" on the Black News Channel. Throughout his career, he has also been interviewed by various media outlets, including on C-SPAN in 2011.

As an author, Blow has published two critically acclaimed books. His New York Times best-selling memoir, "Fire Shut Up in My Bones," won a Lambda Literary Award and the Sperber Prize and was adapted into an opera that opened the Metropolitan Opera's 2021-2022 season. His second book, "The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto," is praised as a crucial work advocating for direct action toward building a political majority.

Blow graduated magna cum laude from Grambling State University in Louisiana, where he received a B.A. in mass communications, and he holds an honorary doctorate from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. As of 2020, he has made Atlanta his primary residence, while maintaining his home in Brooklyn. He came out publicly as bisexual in 2014, shedding light on his personal experiences in his published works and articles.