Taylor Sheridan will make his literary debut with a book coming later this year.
Simon & Schuster will publish the filmmaker’s How To Not Die in Prison, co-written with ex-con Tom Nelson, this summer, the press announced in a news release. It calls the book “a no-bullsh*t, darkly funny survival guide to life inside a maximum-security prison.”
Sheridan worked as an actor before making his directing debut in 2011 with the horror film Vile. He is now best known as the creator of several popular television shows including Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, and Landman. Nelson, according to Simon & Schuster, “has been busted for everything from auto theft and assault and battery to armed robbery and drug dealing” and served more than 17 years in prison.
Their book, Simon & Schuster says, “teaches readers everything they need to know to make it out alive, from how to survive a prison riot, a lockdown, a stabbing, a hit, and solitary confinement to how to get a job, not go insane, make prison ramen, give a prison tat, and (allegedly) make a shiv.”
Sheridan writes in the book’s introduction, “You might wonder what in the world gives me the knowledge or wisdom to write a survival guide to prison. Well, I’ll tell you—absolutely nothing. I’ve never been to prison. But, like every man, I’ve certainly wondered how I would survive if circumstances ever put me there. That morbid curiosity sent me on a journey to understand the politics and dangers of prison.”
How To Not Die in Prison is slated for publication on June 23.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
