Saeed Jones
Saeed Jones (born November 26, 1985) is an American writer and poet. His debut collection "Prelude to Bruise" was named a 2014 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. His second book, a memoir, "How We Fight for Our Lives" won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction in 2019. Early life. Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee and grew up in Lewisville, Texas. He attended college at Western Kentucky University, then earned an MFA at Rutgers University–Newark. Career. Poetry. NPR called "Prelude to Bruise", Jones's debut poetry collection, "brilliant, unsparing," "visceral and affecting." "The  Kenyon Review" said the work "evokes a perilous, often mythic, eroticism within a brutalizing context of violence." "TIME Magazine" recommended it as "an engrossing read best consumed in as few sittings as possible." It was a 2014 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. Jones has been a winner of the Pushcart Prize, the Joyce Osterwell Award for Poetry from the PEN Literary Awards, and the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Award for Literature, and a nominee for the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. Jones has been featured on "PBS NewsHour"s poetry series and on  So Popular! with Janet Mock on MSNBC. He was featured on the cover of "Hello Mr." in 2015. Prose and other projects. Jones previously worked for BuzzFeed as the LGBT editor and Culture editor. While at BuzzFeed, Jones cohosted BuzzFeed New's morning show AM to DM from fall 2017 until mid-2019. Jones also wrote an advice column for BuzzFeed's "READER" newsletter entitled "Dear Ferocity." His memoir "How We Fight for Our Lives" was published by Simon & Schuster in 2019. The New Yorker called the book's tone and content "urgent, immediate, matter of fact". NPR called it an  outstanding memoir with "elements that profoundly connect him to poetry" and to "many of us who grew up dreaming of a chance at upward social mobility". The book won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction in 2019 and a Lambda Literary Award in 2020. In 2022, Jones's interview with Debbie Millman was featured on the Storybound (podcast) season 5 premiere. Personal life. Jones lives in Columbus, Ohio. Bibliography. Poetry collections. In Anthology