Jay Boss Rubin, a native of Portland, Oregon, is a Swahili instructor at Hofstra University. He learned the African language at the University of Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, then began offering free, Monday-night Swahili lessons at Voodoo Doughnut (where he was also employed as a fryer) in 2004. After several attempts at writing a nonfiction account of his manic years as an activist in Africa and America, he is finally giving it a break and trying his hand at essays and fiction.