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 in Creative Writing at Rutgers University–Newark.

Career

Poetry Jones released his debut poetry chapbook in 2011. Titled When the Only Light is Fire, it was the top-selling book in the Gay Poetry category on Amazon for several weeks. 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.

In September 2022, Jones published another poetry collection, Alive at the End of the World.

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 NewsHours 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 founding LGBT editor and its executive culture editor. While at BuzzFeed, Jones cohosted BuzzFeed News' 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.

In August 2022, Jones launched a SiriusXM podcast called Vibe Check. Co-hosted by Sam Sanders and Zach Stafford, the podcast focuses on "news and culture from a Black and queer perspective."

He was the 2024-2025 artist-in-residence in the Media, Health and Medicine program at Harvard Medical School. Jones taught in the Bennington Writing Seminars, January 2024-May 2025.

Personal life Jones lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Jones was brought up to practice Nichiren Buddhism and still does today.