How We Fight for Our Lives

"In powerful poetry and prose, Saeed Jones recounts his experiences growing up as a young, black, gay man in rural Texas. Jones told NPR’s Sam Sanders he wanted “to allow readers to be in my body” through these formative years: He describes grappling with his attraction to other boys at a young age and surviving a violent sexual encounter. The book is also an ode of sorts to Jones’ mother, who died following a heart attack in 2011. Jones writes about fighting for his life – and in doing so, offers lessons in how we can all fight for our own. “Our culture is dominated by and obsessed with straight, rich, cisgender people,” Jones says. “I think those people will never fully understand how much work literally everyone else does to imagine ourselves into existence.”"

"I like to read fiction with a strong poetic feel, because the sense of beautiful language is catching (see "How We Fight for Our Lives," noted above)."