Afi Scruggs is an award-winning writer, journalist, and author who lives in Cleveland, Ohio. Her career started in 1983 as a freelancer in Richmond, Va. After that, she worked at newspapers in the Washington D.C. area, Jackson, Miss., and Dayton, Ohio before settling in Cleveland.
Afi Scruggs is an award-winning writer, journalist, and author who lives in Cleveland, Ohio. Her career started in 1983 as a freelancer in Richmond, Va. After that, she worked at newspapers in the Washington D.C. area, Jackson, Miss., and Dayton, Ohio before settling in Cleveland.
Her articles and columns have appeared in the Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, The U.S. edition of the Guardian, USA Today, and Essence magazine and on washingtonpost.com. Her audio segments have been broadcast on APM’s Money, NPR/WBUR’s Only A Game, and both WKSU 89.7 and WCPN 90.3, NPR affiliates in northeast Ohio.
Her recent accolades include Best Freelancer in Ohio Digital, and second place, Best Feature Writer in Ohio, from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists (2020). She placed third for the 2020 Best Freelancer in Ohio from the Cleveland Press Club.
She’s also written three books: Jump Rope Magic, published by Scholastic; a genealogical memoir, “Claiming Kin: Confronting the History of an African-American Family”; and an essay collection entitled “Beyond Stitch and Bitch: Reflections on Knitting and Life.” The New York Times Book Review called Jump Rope Magic a “magical, spunky book.”
Afi has a PhD in Slavic linguistics from Brown University and a BA in Russian from the University of Chicago. She’s also an accomplished bass player.
