How We Fight for Our Lives
{{Short description|2019 memoir by Saeed Jones}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox book
| name = How We Fight for Our Lives
| image = How We Fight for Our Lives (Saeed Jones).png
| caption = First edition cover
| author = Saeed Jones
| country = United States
| language = English
| genre = Memoir
| publisher = Simon & Schuster
| isbn = 978-1501132735
| cover_artist =
| pub_date = October 8, 2019
| media_type = Print (hardback and paperback), audiobook, e-book
| pages = 208 (hardcover)
}}
How We Fight for Our Lives is a coming-of-age memoir written by American author Saeed Jones and published by Simon & Schuster in 2019. The story follows Jones as a young, Black, gay man in 1990s Lewisville, Texas as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears.
Reception
How We Fight for Our Lives has earned widespread critical acclaim.{{cite web |url=https://www.columbusmonthly.com/news/20200812/seven-questions-saeed-jones-on-his-first-year-in-columbus |title=Seven Questions: Saeed Jones on his First Year in Columbus |last=Frankart Henterly |first=Emma |date=August 12, 2020 |work=Columbus Monthly |access-date=January 17, 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/saeed-jones-interview-new-memoir |title=If You Read One Memoir This Year, Make It This One |last=Newman-Bremang |first=Kathleen |date=December 3, 2019 |work=Refinery29 |access-date=January 17, 2021}}
It received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly,{{cite web |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5011-3273-5 |title=Nonfiction Book Review: How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones |date=October 8, 2019 |work=Publishers Weekly |access-date=January 17, 2021}} Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews.{{cite web |url=https://www.libraryjournal.com/?reviewDetail=how-we-fight-for-our-lives-a-memoir |title=How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir |last=Sendaula |first=Stephanie |date=July 31, 2019 |work=Library Journal |access-date=January 17, 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/saeed-jones/how-we-fight-for-our-lives/ |title=HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES |date=October 8, 2019 |work=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=January 17, 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.salon.com/2019/11/09/saeed-jones-on-how-we-fight-for-our-lives-and-writing-with-skin-in-the-game/ |title=Saeed Jones on "How We Fight For Our Lives" and writing with "skin in the game" |last=Watkins |first=D. |date=November 10, 2019 |work=Salon |access-date=January 17, 2021}} NPR called the book an "Extremely personal, emotionally gritty, and unabashedly honest...outstanding memoir."{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/10/14/768755815/how-we-fight-for-our-lives-is-one-life-story-that-finds-connection-to-others |title='How We Fight For Our Lives' Is One Life Story That Finds Connection To Others |last=Iglesias |first=Gabino |date=October 14, 2019 |work=NPR |access-date=January 17, 2021}} The Los Angeles Review of Books noted that "Jones displays a poet’s knack for the searing detail, and the pages of his memoir are full of beautiful and surprising images that buoy us through the pain and heartache and often seething rage that fuel its propulsive, precise narration."{{cite web |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/our-bodies-ourselves-on-saeed-joness-how-we-fight-for-our-lives/ |title=Our Bodies, Ourselves: On Saeed Jones's "How We Fight for Our Lives" |last=Larson |first=Richard |date=November 24, 2019 |work=Los Angeles Review of Books |access-date=January 17, 2021}}
In 2019 the book won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction; in 2020 it won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography,{{cite magazine |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/06/lambda-literary-lammy-32nd-annual-award-winners |title=PRIDE MONTH EXCLUSIVE: The Winners of the 32nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards |last=Vanderhoof |first=Erin |date=June 1, 2020 |magazine=Vanity Fair |access-date=January 17, 2021}} the Stonewall Book Award-Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award and the Randy Shilts Award for gay nonfiction.{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/books/t%C3%A9a-mutonji-and-kai-cheng-thom-among-winners-of-2020-publishing-triangle-awards-for-lgbtq-literature-1.5552236 |title=Téa Mutonji and Kai Cheng Thom among winners of 2020 Publishing Triangle Awards for LGBTQ literature |last=Yohannes |first=Samraweet |date=May 1, 2020 |work=CBC Arts |access-date=January 17, 2021}} It was listed in Kirkus Reviews{{'}} Best Books of 2019 in the Best Memoirs section and on Time's list of must-read books of 2019''.{{cite web |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-lists/best-memoirs-of-2019/ |title=Best Memoirs of 2019 |work=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=January 17, 2021}}{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/collection/must-read-books-2019/5724550/how-we-fight-for-our-lives/ |title=How We Fight For Our Lives: A Memoir |magazine=Time |access-date=January 17, 2021}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
Category:2019 non-fiction books
Category:African-American autobiographies
Category:Simon & Schuster books
Category:Lambda Literary Award–winning works
Category:LGBTQ autobiographies
Category:Stonewall Book Award–winning works
Category:Kirkus Prize–winning works
Category:LGBTQ literature in the United States