Kiese Laymon

Laymon was born and raised in Mississippi. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Oberlin College, and his Master's in Fine Arts at Indiana University.{{cite web|url=http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2013/feb/15/kiese-laymon/ |author=Nave, R. L.|title=Kiese Laymon |work=Jackson Free Press |date=February 15, 2013 |accessdate=January 15, 2014}} He also attended Jackson State University, where his mother worked as a political science professor, and Millsaps College, where he was suspended for a year after taking a library book without checking it out. His suspension followed ongoing criticism from the administration, including president George Harmon, who believed his controversial pieces on race in the school newspaper adversely affected campus and alumni relations.

Laymon detailed his experience of racism at Millsaps, and as a coming-of-age black man in Mississippi, in his essay for Gawker, "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America".{{cite web|url=http://gawker.com/5927452/how-to-slowly-kill-yourself-and-others-in-america-a-remembrance |author=Laymon, Kiese| title=How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance |publisher=Gawker |date=July 28, 2012 |accessdate=September 2, 2017}} The essay was widely read and attracted both positive and negative comments on his portrayal of his racial experiences. "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others" was eventually included in his book of autobiographical essays by the same name.{{Cite web |title=Kiese Laymon |url=https://www.kieselaymon.com/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |website=Kiese Laymon |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Bereola |first=Abigail |date=2018-10-18 |title=A Reckoning Is Different than a Tell-All: An Interview with Kiese Laymon |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/10/18/a-reckoning-is-different-than-a-tell-all-an-interview-with-kiese-laymon/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}}

His 2018 memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, deals with his difficult relationship with his mother—who instilled in him a love of reading and skill in writing, but who was in an abusive relationship, lived on very little money, and beat him with the justification that he needed to be tough enough for a white world that would treat him even more harshly—as well as his subsequent unhealthy relationships with food and gambling.{{cite news |last1=Simon |first1=Scott |title='Heavy': Kiese Laymon's Memoir Examines How People Absorb Trauma |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/10/13/657109487/heavy-kiese-laymons-memoir-examines-how-people-absorb-trauma |accessdate=14 October 2018 |work=NPR}} It also deals with American racism, feminism, family, masculinity, geography, hip hop, and Southern black life.{{cite news|first=Jason|last=McCall|url=http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/the-past-is-not-dead-time-and-race-in-kiese-laymons-long-division|title=The Past is Not Dead: Time and Race in Kiese Laymon's "Long Division"|accessdate=April 1, 2014|date=November 20, 2013|work=Los Angeles Review of Books|archive-date=February 3, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203163127/http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/the-past-is-not-dead-time-and-race-in-kiese-laymons-long-division/|url-status=dead}} His blog, Cold Drank, features essays and short fiction as well as pieces written by guest contributors.{{cite news|first=Nick|last=Pauley|url=http://wineandbowties.com/ideas/keeping-it-100-2/|title=Keeping it 100|accessdate=April 1, 2014|date=July 14, 2013|work=Wine and Bowties}} Laymon has written essays and stories for publications including Gawker, ESPN.com, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, BuzzFeed, and The Guardian.{{cite web |url=http://www.theroot.com/articles/lists/2013/10/theroot_100/kiese_laymon.html |title=Kiese Laymon |publisher=The Root |date=November 4, 2013 |accessdate=January 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121170409/http://www.theroot.com/articles/lists/2013/10/theroot_100/kiese_laymon.html |archive-date=January 21, 2014 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.kieselaymon.com/essays/|title=Essays|website=Kiese Laymon|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-01}}

Writing for NPR, Martha Anne Toll described Laymon as "a star in the American literary firmament, with a voice that is courageous, honest, loving, and singularly beautiful. Heavy is at once a paean to the Deep South, a condemnation of our fat-averse culture, and a brilliantly rendered memoir of growing up black, and bookish, and entangled in a family that is as challenging as it is grounding."{{Cite web|title='Heavy' Brilliantly Renders The Struggle To Become Fully Realized|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/657824190/heavy-brilliantly-renders-the-struggle-to-become-fully-realized|access-date=2021-06-08|website=NPR.org|date=October 17, 2018|language=en|last1=Toll|first1=Martha Anne}}

While he was living and writing in upstate New York, as a professor at Vassar College, Laymon's refusal to omit explicit aspects of Long Division that explore racial politics prolonged negotiations with a major publishing group. His books were eventually picked up by the independent publisher Agate Publishing, which released his debut novel in June 2013.{{cite web|last=Shengold |first=Nina |url=http://www.chronogram.com/hudsonvalley/kiese-laymon-keeps-it-real/Content?oid=2197764 |title=Kiese Laymon Keeps it Real | Notes from Underground |publisher=Chronogram.com |date=September 1, 2013 |accessdate=January 15, 2014}}{{cite web|last=Valentine |first=Genevieve |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bea/article/57421-bea-2013-kiese-laymon-chasing-the-narrative.html |title=BEA 2013: Kiese Laymon: Chasing the Narrative |publisher=Publishersweekly.com |date=May 30, 2013 |accessdate=January 15, 2014}}

In addition to Laymon's satirical time-travel novel Long Division, his book of autobiographical essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, was published by Agate in August 2013.{{cite web|url=http://therumpus.net/2013/08/first-time-author-two-new-books/ |title=First Time Author, Two New Books |author=Bereola, Abigail|publisher=The Rumpus.net |date=August 14, 2013 |accessdate=January 15, 2014}}

Laymon was an associate professor of English and Africana Studies at Vassar College, then became a professor of Creative Writing in the MFA program at the University of Mississippi.{{Cite news|url=http://thedmonline.com/kiese-laymon/|first=Liam|last=Nieman|title='I'd made a body disappear': Kiese Laymon debuts memoir about race, weight, family|date=October 17, 2018|work=The Daily Mississippian|access-date=November 1, 2018|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=https://qz.com/work/1411986/metoo-taught-this-black-male-author-that-america-encourages-abuse-and-harm/|first= Kemi|last= Lijadu |author2= Leah Fessler| title=#MeToo taught Heavy author Kiese Laymon that America encourages abuse — Quartz at Work|website=qz.com|language=en|date=October 30, 2018 |access-date=November 1, 2018}}

{{as of|2022}}, he is professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University.{{cite web |url=https://mfaenglish.olemiss.edu/kiese-laymon/|title=Kiese Laymon| website= University of Mississippi M.F.A. Faculty |date=July 21, 2015 |access-date=October 23, 2016}}

• 2013 & 2014: Member of The Root 100, a "list of the 100 most important black influencers between the ages of 25 and 45"{{Cite news |date=October 26, 2013 |title=The Root 100: A Who's Who Of Black America |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/09/26/226478848/the-root-100-a-whos-who-of-black-america |access-date=September 27, 2021 |work=WAMU Tell Me More |publisher=NPR |df=mdy-all}}
• 2022: MacArthur Fellows Program{{Cite web |title=Kiese Laymon |url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2022/kiese-laymon |access-date=2022-10-14 |website=www.macfound.org |language=en}}

• {{cite book |last=Laymon |first=Kiese |author-mask=2 |title=Long Division |publisher=Agate Bolden |year=2013 |isbn=9781932841725 |edition=paperback}}

• {{cite book |last=Laymon |first=Kiese |author-mask=2 |title=How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America |publisher=Agate Bolden |year=2013 |isbn=9781932841770 |edition=paperback}}

• {{cite book |last=Laymon |first=Kiese |author-mask=2 |title=Heavy: An American Memoir |publisher=Scribner |year=2018 |isbn=9781501125652 |edition=hardcover 1st}}

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{{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction}}

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Category:1974 births

Category:Living people

Category:African-American novelists

Category:American male novelists

Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni

Category:Jackson State University alumni

Category:Millsaps College alumni

Category:Oberlin College alumni

Category:Writers from Jackson, Mississippi

Category:Vassar College faculty

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:Novelists from Mississippi

Category:Novelists from New York (state)

Category:21st-century African-American writers

Category:20th-century African-American people

Category:African-American male writers

Category:Vanity Fair (magazine) people

Category:MacArthur Fellows

Category:Rice University faculty

Category:Memoirists from Mississippi

Category:University of Mississippi faculty

Category:21st-century African-American academics

Category:Writers from Mississippi