Saeed Jones

Saeed Jones is an American poet whose debut collection Prelude to a Bruise was named a 2014 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. Jones is also executive editor for culture at Buzzfeed.

Early life

Jones was born in Tennessee and grew up in Lewisville, Texas. He attended college at Western Kentucky University, then earned an MFA at Rutgers University-Newark.

Career

NPR called Prelude to a 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."

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.

Jones also writes an advice column for BuzzFeed's READER newsletter entitled "Dear Ferocity."

Jones now lives in New York City.