Stream it: A conversation about resilience with Maggie Smith & Saeed Jones

There are few among us who can look at the fall and winter ahead and feel a sense of peace. Between sharp, sometimes violent political divides and a pandemic that's already building up to a third wave, affecting livelihoods as well as lives, now is a time that requires each of us to call on our inner strength.

Columbus-based poets Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith know something about such times, and they'll connect on the subject of resilience in a livestream conversation tonight at 7 PM ET, hosted by Bexley's Gramercy Books in partnership with the Kenyon Review and Ohio State's Creative Writing Program. You can reserve your spot through the link below through 4 PM, with the option of purchasing books by the authors along with your virtual ticket.

In his 2019 memoir How We Fight for Our Lives, Jones shares how it took years to build the courage to be an openly gay man in the face of the homophobia and racism that color life in America. Smith went viral in 2016 with "Good Bones," a poem to her children about the worst of the world and how they might make it better that was written in the midst of a difficult divorce. She now has a brand new book of quotes and essays about working one's way through emotional pain, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change.

Reserve your spot for A Virtual Conversation about Resilience: Maggie Smith and Saeed Jones through Gramercy Books.