The Peoples Project, Saeed Jones
The Peoples Project, Saeed Jones
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The People's Project
Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward

Author: Saeed Jones, Maggie Smith

Narrator: Hala Alyan, Victoria Chang, Tiana Clark, Jill Damatac, Mieko Gavia, Aubrey Hirsch, Mira Jacob, Kay Jones, Randall Mann, Abi Maxwell, Koritha Mitchell, André Santana, Jason Silverstein

Unabridged: 1 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/09/2025

Synopsis

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

A liberatory anthology of twenty-seven writers—a community in book form—charting paths ahead for action and care in the face of political uncertainty, curated by Maggie Smith and Saeed Jones.

Inspired by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith’s conversations in the wake of the 2024 election, this is a collection of poems, essays, and visual art on what we—individually and collectively—can hold onto, and what we can work towards.

In times of difficulty, with a government working against its own people, we must turn to our friends and loved ones to provide context, language, energy, and hope. The People’s Project offers a range of perspectives, drawing wisdom from their communities and histories: from know-your-place aggression to crip time as a way forward, from finding strength in nature to how trans people provide a guide for the future, and how hope has everything to do with survival.

We hope these meditations and strategies will provide you with inspiration and fortitude for the years ahead.

Featuring original and selected work from Alexander Chee, Chase Strangio, Tiana Clark, Hala Alyan, Aubrey Hirsch, Imani Perry, Abi Maxwell, Victoria Chang, Koritha Mitchell, Jason Silverstein, Alice Wong, Mira Jacob, Aruni Kashyap, Sam Sax, Ashley C. Ford, Marlon James, Eula Biss, Randall Mann, Danez Smith, Ada Limon, Kiese Laymon, Joy Harjo, Jill Damatac, Kay Jones, and Patricia Smith.

About Saeed Jones

Saeed Jones is the author of Prelude to Bruise, winner of the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry and the 2015 Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award. The poetry collection was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as awards from Lambda Literary and the Publishing Triangle in 2015. Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Lewisville, Texas. He earned a BA at Western Kentucky University and an MFA at Rutgers University-Newark. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and is on Bluesky @TheFerocity. 

About Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of nine books of poetry and prose, including A Suit or a Suitcase, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Keep Moving, and My Thoughts Have Wings.  She has been widely published, appearing in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Best American Poetry, and more. She is the host of The Slowdown. You can find her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.

About Hala Alyan

Hala Alyan is the author of the novels Salt Houses—winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award, and a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize—and The Arsonists’ City, a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. She is also the author of five highly acclaimed collections of poetry, including The Twenty-Ninth Year and The Moon That Turns You Back. Her work has been published by The New Yorker, The Academy of American Poets, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Guernica. She lives in Brooklyn with her family, where she works as a clinical psychologist and professor at New York University.

About Victoria Chang

Victoria Chang is a celebrated poet, whose books have earned such honors as a PEN Center Literary Award and a California Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, POETRY, Believer, New England Review, VQR, The Nation, New Republic, The Washington Post, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. She is a contributing editor of the literary journal, Copper Nickel. She lives in Southern California with her family and her wiener dog, Mustard. Is Mommy…? is her first book for children.

About Tiana Clark

Tiana Clark is the author of the poetry collections Scorched Earth; I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood, which won the 2017 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize; and Equilibrium, which won the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. Clark’s other honors include a Pushcart Prize, a Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Tennessee State University, where she studied Africana and women’s studies. She is the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith College. Find out more at TianaClark.com.

About Jill Damatac

Jill Damatac is a writer and filmmaker born in the Philippines, raised in the US, and now a UK citizen, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her film and photography work has been featured on the BBC and in Time, and at film festivals worldwide; her short documentary film Blood and Ink (Dugo at Tinta), about the Indigenous Filipino tattooist Apo Whang Od, was an official selection at the Academy Award–qualifying DOC NYC and won Best Documentary at Ireland’s Kerry Film Festival. Jill holds an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Documentary Film from the University of the Arts London. Follow her on Instagram @JillDamatac.

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Quotes

"The subtitle of this short, inspiring listen could be: “Pep talks from your favorite writers.” Maggie Smith and Saeed Jones have put together a vibrant collection of short essays and poems about how to keep going in times that feel impossible. Many of the writers read their own contributions. Highlights include beautiful poems read with raw emotion by Tiana Clark, Victoria Chang, and Randall Mann; and Mira Jacob’s poem in the form of a text left for her son after the 2024 election, read with inviting warmth. Seasoned narrators André Santana, Kay Jones, and Mieko Gavia read the pieces not performed by their authors with a variety of inflections, reflecting the different styles of the contributing writers. This delightful listen is a much-needed reminder that we are not alone."

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