diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c491291..98762ab 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ In addition to being memory efficient (with some [limitations](https://stream-zi
 
 - By default stores modification time as an extended timestamp. An extended timestamp is a more accurate timestamp than the original ZIP format allows
 
+- Provides an async interface (that uses threads under the hood to share code with sync interface without blocking the event loop)
+
 <!-- --8<-- [end:features] -->
 
 ---
diff --git a/docs/async-interface.md b/docs/async-interface.md
index 7d1da00..0e300d6 100644
--- a/docs/async-interface.md
+++ b/docs/async-interface.md
@@ -5,69 +5,52 @@ title: Async interface
 ---
 
 
-stream-zip does not include an async interface. However, it is possible to construct an async function that wraps stream-zip to allow the construction of zip files in a streaming way from async code without blocking the event loop.
+An async interface is provided via the function `async_stream_zip`. Its usage is exactly the same as `stream_zip` except that:
 
-```python
-import asyncio
-from stream_zip import stream_zip
-
-async def async_stream_zip(member_files, *args, **kwargs):
-
-    async def to_async_iterable(sync_iterable):
-        # to_thread errors if StopIteration raised in it. So we use a sentinel to detect the end
-        done = object()
-        it = iter(sync_iterable)
-        while (value := await asyncio.to_thread(next, it, done)) is not done:
-            yield value
-
-    def to_sync_iterable(async_iterable):
-        done = object()
-        async_it = aiter(async_iterable)
-        while (value := asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(anext(async_it, done), loop).result()) is not done:
-            yield value
-
-    loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
-    sync_member_files = (
-        member_file[0:4] + (to_sync_iterable(member_file[4],),)
-        for member_file in to_sync_iterable(member_files)
-    )
-
-    async for chunk in to_async_iterable(stream_zip(sync_member_files, *args, **kwargs)):
-        yield chunk
-```
-
-The above allows the member files to be supplied by an async iterable, and the data of each member file to be supplied by an async iterable.
+1. The member files must be provided as an async iterable of tuples.
+2. The data of each member file must be provided as an async iterable of bytes.
+3. Its return value is an async iterable of bytes.
 
 ```python
 from datetime import datetime
 from stat import S_IFREG
-from stream_zip import ZIP_32
+from stream_zip import async_stream_zip, ZIP_32
 
 # Hard coded for example purposes
-async def get_async_data():
+async def async_data():
     yield b'Some bytes 1'
     yield b'Some bytes 2'
 
 # Hard coded for example purposes
-async def get_async_member_files():
+async def async_member_files():
     yield (
         'my-file-1.txt',     
         datetime.now(),      
         S_IFREG | 0o600,
         ZIP_32,              
-        get_async_data(),
+        async_data(),
     )
     yield (
         'my-file-2.txt',     
         datetime.now(),      
         S_IFREG | 0o600,
         ZIP_32,              
-        get_async_data(),
+        async_data(),
     )
 
 async def main():
-    async for chunk in async_stream_zip(get_async_member_files()):
+    async for chunk in async_stream_zip(async_member_files()):
         print(chunk)
 
 asyncio.run(main())
-```
\ No newline at end of file
+```
+
+> ### Warnings
+>
+> Under the hood `async_stream_zip` uses threads as a layer over the synchronous `stream_zip` function. This has two consequences:
+>
+> 1. A possible performance penalty over a theoretical implementation that is pure async without threads.
+>
+> 2. The [contextvars](https://docs.python.org/3/library/contextvars.html) context in the async iterables of files or data is a copy of the context where async_stream_zip is called from. Existing context variables are available inside the iterables, but any changes made to the context from inside the iterables are not seen from outside of them.
+>
+>   This only affects Python 3.7 onwards, because contextvars is only available in Python 3.7 onwards.
diff --git a/docs/features.md b/docs/features.md
index cdf9c72..56479c1 100644
--- a/docs/features.md
+++ b/docs/features.md
@@ -19,3 +19,5 @@ In addition to being memory efficient (with some [limitations](/get-started/#lim
 - Allows the specification of permissions on the member files and directories (although not all clients respect them)
 
 - By default stores modification time as an extended timestamp. An extended timestamp is a more accurate timestamp than the original ZIP format allows
+
+- Provides an async interface (that uses threads under the hood to share code with sync interface without blocking the event loop)
diff --git a/stream_zip.py b/stream_zip.py
index 8ca9265..3e577a2 100644
--- a/stream_zip.py
+++ b/stream_zip.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from collections import deque
 from struct import Struct
+import asyncio
 import secrets
 import zlib
 
@@ -715,6 +716,48 @@ def _no_compression_streamed_data(chunks, uncompressed_size, crc_32, maximum_siz
     yield from evenly_sized(zipped_chunks)
 
 
+async def async_stream_zip(member_files, *args, **kwargs):
+
+    async def to_async_iterable(sync_iterable):
+        # asyncio.to_thread is not available until Python 3.9, and  StopIteration doesn't get
+        # propagated by run_in_executor, so we use a sentinel to detect the end of the iterable
+        done = object()
+        it = iter(sync_iterable)
+
+        # contextvars are not available until Python 3.7
+        try:
+            import contextvars
+        except ImportError:
+            get_args = lambda: (next, it, done)
+        else:
+            get_args = lambda: (contextvars.copy_context().run, next, it, done)
+
+        while True:
+            value = await loop.run_in_executor(None, *get_args())
+            if value is done:
+                break
+            yield value
+
+    def to_sync_iterable(async_iterable):
+        # The built-in aiter and anext functions are not available until Python 3.10
+        async_it = async_iterable.__aiter__()
+        while True:
+            try:
+                value = asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(async_it.__anext__(), loop).result()
+            except StopAsyncIteration:
+                break
+            yield value
+
+    loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
+    sync_member_files = (
+        member_file[0:4] + (to_sync_iterable(member_file[4],),)
+        for member_file in to_sync_iterable(member_files)
+    )
+
+    async for chunk in to_async_iterable(stream_zip(sync_member_files, *args, **kwargs)):
+        yield chunk
+
+
 class ZipError(Exception):
     pass
 
diff --git a/test_stream_zip.py b/test_stream_zip.py
index 89bff61..e8f3ca0 100644
--- a/test_stream_zip.py
+++ b/test_stream_zip.py
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 from datetime import datetime, timezone, timedelta
 from io import BytesIO
+import asyncio
 import contextlib
+import contextvars
 import os
+import platform
 import secrets
 import stat
 import subprocess
@@ -15,6 +18,7 @@
 from stream_unzip import IncorrectAESPasswordError, UnsupportedZip64Error, stream_unzip
 
 from stream_zip import (
+    async_stream_zip,
     stream_zip,
     NO_COMPRESSION_64,
     NO_COMPRESSION_32,
@@ -32,6 +36,9 @@
 )
 
 
+###################################################################################################
+# Utility functions for tests
+
 @contextlib.contextmanager
 def cwd(new_dir):
     old_dir = os.getcwd()
@@ -50,6 +57,9 @@ def gen_bytes(num):
         yield chunk[:to_yield]
 
 
+###################################################################################################
+# Tests of sync interface: stream_zip
+
 def test_with_stream_unzip_zip_64():
     now = datetime.strptime('2021-01-01 21:01:12', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
     mode = stat.S_IFREG | 0o600
@@ -1274,3 +1284,145 @@ def test_crc_32_not_in_file(method):
     assert crc_32[2:4] not in encrypted_bytes
     assert crc_32[0:3] not in encrypted_bytes
     assert crc_32[1:4] not in encrypted_bytes
+
+
+###################################################################################################
+# Tests of sync interface: async_stream_zip
+#
+# Under the hood we know that async_stream_zip delegates to stream_zip, so there isn't as much
+# of a need to test everything. We have a brief test that it seems to work in one case, but
+# otherwise focus on the riskiest parts: that exceptions don't propagate, that the async version
+# doesn't actually stream, or that context vars are not propagated properly
+
+def test_async_stream_zip_equivalent_to_stream_unzip_zip_32_and_zip_64():
+    now = datetime.strptime('2021-01-01 21:01:12', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
+    mode = stat.S_IFREG | 0o600
+
+    def sync_files():
+        yield 'file-1', now, mode, ZIP_64, (b'a' * 10000, b'b' * 10000)
+        yield 'file-2', now, mode, ZIP_32, (b'c', b'd')
+
+    async def async_files():
+        async def data_1():
+            yield b'a' * 10000
+            yield b'b' * 10000
+
+        async def data_2():
+            yield b'c'
+            yield b'd'
+
+        yield 'file-1', now, mode, ZIP_64, data_1()
+        yield 'file-2', now, mode, ZIP_32, data_2()
+
+    # Might not be performant, but good enough for the test
+    async def async_concat(chunks):
+        result = b''
+        async for chunk in chunks:
+            result += chunk
+        return result
+
+    async def test():
+        assert b''.join(stream_zip(sync_files())) == await async_concat(async_stream_zip(async_files()))
+
+    asyncio.run(test())
+
+
+def test_async_exception_propagates():
+    now = datetime.strptime('2021-01-01 21:01:12', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
+    mode = stat.S_IFREG | 0o600
+
+    async def async_data():
+        yield b'-'
+
+    async def async_files():
+        yield 'file-1', now, mode, ZIP_64, async_data()
+        raise Exception('From generator')
+
+    async def test():
+        async for chunk in async_stream_zip(async_files()):
+            pass
+
+    with pytest.raises(Exception,  match='From generator'):
+        asyncio.run(test())
+
+
+def test_async_exception_from_bytes_propagates():
+    now = datetime.strptime('2021-01-01 21:01:12', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
+    mode = stat.S_IFREG | 0o600
+
+    async def async_data():
+        yield b'-'
+        raise Exception('From generator')
+
+    async def async_files():
+        yield 'file-1', now, mode, ZIP_64, async_data()
+
+    async def test():
+        async for chunk in async_stream_zip(async_files()):
+            pass
+
+    with pytest.raises(Exception,  match='From generator'):
+        asyncio.run(test())
+
+
+def test_async_stream_zip_does_stream():
+    now = datetime.strptime('2021-01-01 21:01:12', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
+    mode = stat.S_IFREG | 0o600
+
+    state = []
+
+    async def async_data():
+        for i in range(0, 4):
+            state.append('in')
+            for j in range(0, 1000):
+                yield b'-' * 64000
+
+    async def async_files():
+        yield 'file-1', now, mode, ZIP_64, async_data()
+
+    async def test():
+        async for chunk in async_stream_zip(async_files()):
+            state.append('out')
+
+    asyncio.run(test())
+    assert state == ['in', 'in', 'out', 'in', 'out', 'in', 'out', 'out']
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    tuple(int(v) for v in platform.python_version().split('.')) < (3,7,0),
+    reason="contextvars are not supported before Python 3.7.0",
+)
+def test_copy_of_context_variable_available_in_iterable():
+    # Ideally the context would be identical in the iterables, because that's what a purely asyncio
+    # implementation of stream-zip would like do
+
+    now = datetime.strptime('2021-01-01 21:01:12', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
+    mode = stat.S_IFREG | 0o600
+
+    var = contextvars.ContextVar('test')
+    var.set('set-from-outer')
+
+    inner_files = None
+    inner_bytes = None
+
+    async def async_files():
+        nonlocal inner_files, inner_bytes
+
+        async def data_1():
+            nonlocal inner_bytes
+            inner_bytes = var.get()
+            var.set('set-from-inner-bytes')
+            yield b'-'
+
+        inner_files = var.get()
+        var.set('set-from-inner-files')
+        yield 'file-1', now, mode, ZIP_64, data_1()
+
+    async def test():
+        async for chunk in async_stream_zip(async_files()):
+            pass
+
+    asyncio.run(test())
+    assert var.get() == 'set-from-outer'
+    assert inner_files == 'set-from-outer'
+    assert inner_bytes == 'set-from-outer'