Mychal Denzel Smith on Believing in the Future

“I had no conception of what a life after thirty could look like because I’d never imagined it. I’d always existed with the fear that I would die before then.” 

Mychal Denzel Smith is the author of the New York Times bestseller Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching and the forthcoming book Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Harper’s, Artforum, Oxford American, New Republic, The Nation, and more. In 2014 and 2016, TheRoot.com named him one of the 100 Most Influential African-Americans in their annual The Root 100 list. He was also a 2017 NAACP Image Award Nominee.