Saeed Jones

Our guest on today's episode is celebrated poet and memoirist Saeed Jones, who joins us to talk about his new book How We Fight for Our Lives. The author of the award-winning poetry collection Prelude to a Bruise, Jones has made wry, cutting and often laugh out loud hilarious commentary on contemporary culture his hallmark on Twitter and in online venues like Buzzfeed's beloved AM to DM web series, which he launched with co-host Isaac Fitzgerald in 2017. In How We Fight for Our Lives, Jones delivers a revelatory, incendiary, page-turning true story: it's both a richly rendered portrait of the artist as a young man growing up gay and black in 1980s Texas, and a chronicle of confrontation with deadly challenges that emerge from both within and without. One of the most keenly anticipated books of the fall, How to Fight for Our Lives is a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and Miwa Messer, Director of the Discover program, spoke to author via phone recently about what it meant to put his story down on paper.