“An indispensable voice on issues of racial identity, politics, and patterns of power in America.”
—Rich Benjamin
About Donovan
“An indispensable voice on issues of racial identity, politics, and patterns of power in America.”
—Rich Benjamin
Photo by Antonio M. Johnson.
Donovan X. Ramsey is a journalist, author, and an indispensable voice on issues of identity, justice, and patterns of power in America.
His reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, GQ, WSJ Magazine, Ebony, and Essence, among other outlets. He has been a staff reporter at the Los Angeles Times, NewsOne, and theGrio. He has served as an editor at The Marshall Project and Complex.
Ramsey’s writing career has been focused entirely on amplifying the remarkable unheard stories of Black America. He believes in people-first narratives that center individuals and communities—not just issues. His memorable magazine work includes profiles of Deion Sanders, Killer Mike, and Bubba Wallace for GQ; and Bryan Stevenson and Ibram Kendi for WSJ Magazine.
Ramsey is the author of When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era, a work of narrative nonfiction exploring how Black America survived the crack epidemic for One World, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher.
He was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He holds degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he concentrated in magazine journalism, and Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta. Today, he calls upstate New York home.
Featured Work
Recent stories by Donovan.
Photo by Adrienne Raquel.
Deion Sanders Enters His Prime
The multisport icon brought once-struggling Jackson State University back to its championship ways and, in the process, made himself the hottest coach in college football. Now as he heads to the University of Colorado, Coach Prime is ready to answer his next calling and take on the most exciting challenge of his career.
Photo by Christian Cody.
The Political Education of Killer Mike
How Michael Render—a rapper from Atlanta who also happens to be a Second Amendment–loving, Bernie Sanders–boosting, unapologetically pro-Black businessman—became one of the loudest and most original political voices in the country.
Photo by Daniel Dorsa.
The Agony and Ecstasy of Cord Jefferson
Studios, he says, “are working to eliminate the job of writer altogether. Eventually, they just want to replace us with robots. So we’re fighting an existential threat to the entire profession.”
Photo by Equal Justice Initiative.
Ghosts of Alabama
Bryan Stevenson's Freedom Monument Sculpture Park opens as contentious disputes over book bans and assaults on Black scholarship rage on.
Photo by Jason Armond.
Patrisse Cullors Is Healing
Her work with Black Lives Matter reignited the struggle for Black liberation, but it also made her a target for threats and abuse.
Photo by Bolade Banjo.
André’s One Man Show
André 3000 is back. With a solo album none of us could have anticipated. Over email, on Zoom, and then in a small sun-lit studio near his home, André talks with Donovan X. Ramsey about where he’s been, his unexpected artistic evolution, and only doing what “feels good.”
Contact
For speaking engagements:
Kwabena Dinizulu and Stasia Whalen, Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau
For other professional inquiries, email Donovan or fill out the form below:
Social
Follow Donovan X. Ramsey