How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir

"Written from the crossroads of sex, race, and power in America, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir and a haunting reflection of the nation as a whole"--
From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives&;winner of the Kirkus Prize and the Stonewall Book Award&;is a &;moving, bracingly honest memoir&; (The New York Times Book Review) written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power. One of the best books of the year as selected by The New York Times; The Washington Post; NPR; Time; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; Harper&;s Bazaar; Elle; BuzzFeed; Goodreads; and many more.&;People don&;t just happen,&; writes Saeed Jones. &;We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The &;I&; it seems doesn&;t exist until we are able to say, &;I am no longer yours.&;&; Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence&;into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another&;and to one another&;as we fight to become ourselves. An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that&;s as beautiful as it is powerful&;a voice that&;s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.