Rasheed Newson

Rasheed Newson is a novelist and television drama writer, producer, and showrunner whose credits include Bel-Air, The Chi, Animal Kingdom, and Narcos. His debut, My Government Means to Kill Me, follows seventeen-year-old Trey Singleton after he leaves a wealthy Indianapolis family for New York City in 1985. Trey's encounters with a home hospice and ACT UP turn a search for independence into political education and community involvement. Flatiron Books launched his debut in 2022, and Macmillan identifies it as a national bestseller and a Lambda Literary Prize finalist. Newson uses a fictional life, footnotes, and appearances by historical figures to place one young man's decisions inside the activism and public crises of the period.