How We Fight for Our Lives: A Conversation with Saeed Jones

To celebrate Pride season and kick off Summer Challenge, join us for a discussion with poet and memoirist Saeed Jones. In conversation with the Library’s Jordan Johnson, Jones will discuss his memoir How We Fight for Our Lives.

We will host the conversation on our Youtube and Facebook pages. Please register here.

About the author:

Saeed Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Lewisville, Texas. His debut collection, Prelude to Bruise, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was awarded the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. The collection also received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which described the book as, “a fever dream, something akin to magic.” His poems engage themes of intimacy, race and power, and often incorporate elements of mythology. In a 2014 interview for PEN America, Jones stated, “I’m obsessed with manhood as a brutal and artful performance. My mind always finds its way back to the crossroad where sex, race, and power collide. Journeys, transformation as well as dashed attempts to transform, fascinate me as well.”

In 2019, Saeed released his highly anticipated memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives. A review from NPR writes, “Jones’s voice and sensibility are so distinct that he turns one of the oldest of literary genres inside out and upside down.” In this memoir, Saeed has developed a one-of-a-kind style that is as beautiful as it is powerful, and he has cemented himself as an essential writer of our time.

Saeed has received a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from Cave Canem and Queer/Art/Mentorship. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, a city he advocates for with ferocity.