Keynote with Saeed Jones & The People's Project

Join award-winning author and editor, Saeed Jones, for a keynote conversation with Victoria Chang, Tiana Clark, and Aruni Kashyap — three contributors to The People’s Project, a compelling new anthology that explores how art, storytelling, and community can help us navigate complex times.

Co-edited by Jones and writer Maggie Smith, The People’s Project brings together twenty-six writers and artists offering personal reflections on resilience, creativity, identity, and connection. This conversation will explore the power of expression through poetry, essays, and visual art to inspire and sustain us, especially during periods of uncertainty.

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.

Joining Jones in conversation are three celebrated contributors to The People’s Project:

• Victoria Chang is the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech, a Guggenheim Fellow, and recipient of the Forward Prize for her 2024 collection With My Back to the World; she is also the author of acclaimed works like OBIT and Dear Memory, and a recipient of the Chowdhury International Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

• Tiana Clark is the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith College, a Pushcart Prize winner, and author of I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood, which won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, along with other acclaimed collections including Scorched Earth and Equilibrium.

• Aruni Kashyap is Associate Professor and Director of Creative Writing at the University of Georgia, a Harvard Radcliffe and NEA Literature Fellow, author of the 2024 story collection The Way You Want To Be Loved, and a noted translator of Assamese literature whose work has received multiple award nominations.

The event will be followed by a book signing with all the guest authors. 

The People’s Project and other books by our guest authors will be available for purchase from Charis Books & More via this link, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Decatur Book Festival.

Parking Information:

The event will take place in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of Decatur. The church is located at 308 Clairemont Ave, Decatur, GA 30030. You can plug this address into your GPS for easy directions.

Parking is available in two main areas:

• Outdoor lot: Located to the right (North) of the sanctuary

• Covered parking deck: Located to the left (South) of the sanctuary

  • Upper level entrance: Accessible from Commerce Drive

  • Lower level entrance: Accessible from Clairemont Avenue

    
    

There are also other parking options throughout Downtown Decatur.