Yellowstone creator and franchise-starter maestro Taylor Sheridan is leaving cowboys behind for the time being as he sets his sights on a new horizon. The director, writer, and producer will instead continue his tenure with crime thrillers, though he’ll shift to a different medium, with the upcoming, “no bullsh*t” project, “How to Not Die in Prison.” Taylor Sheridan has become synonymous with creating several hugely successful franchises, including Yellowstone, which now has several spin-offs, the action thriller spy show Special Ops: Lioness, which is currently gearing up for its third season, the crime saga Mayor of Kingstown starring Jeremy Renner, and Tulsa King with Sylvester Stallone, which is also now set to launch its own Samuel L. Jackson-led spin-off series. With all that in his rearview mirror on the small screen, Sheridan will now turn to the written word as he publishes his first book, “How to Not Die in Prison.” Simon & Schuster announced today that it will publish the debut book from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Taylor Sheridan, describing “How to Not Die in Prison” as “a no bullsh*t, darkly funny survival guide to life in a maximum-security prison.” While Sheridan himself has never been to prison, he’ll bring his affinity for world-building to the genre alongside co-writer Tom Nelson, a real-life prison-hardened ex-con. “How to Not Die in Prison” is due for release on June 23, 2026. You can check out the synopsis for the book below…
“There is no book of rules for life in prison—until now. How to Not Die in Prison 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.”

Simon & Schuster

Sheridan is, of course, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Emmy-nominated producer, and the creator, writer, director, and executive producer of multiple record-breaking series including Yellowstone, Landman, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, 1883, 1923, Lioness, and the upcoming The Madison, as well as acclaimed movies such as Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River. And he’s eager to explore his “morbid curiosity” in “How to Not Die in Prison.”
“You might wonder what in the world gives me the knowledge or wisdom to write a survival guide to prison,” Taylor Sheridan writes in the book’s introduction. “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. When researching for Mayor of Kingstown, I learned very quickly it’s way better to avoid going to prison than figuring out how to survive one.”
Co-writer Tom Nelson, meanwhile, has been busted for everything from auto theft and assault and battery to armed robbery and drug dealing, all of which has seen him spend more than seventeen years as an inmate in maximum- and medium-security prisons. He has since become a proud father, husband, and personal trainer, and wishes he “could’ve heeded Taylor’s advice all those years ago and read the F*cking Book, but that’s exactly the point: there was no Fucking Book to speak of because I hadn’t yet been spit out through the system and gained the knowledge that my co-author currently refers to as wisdom.”