Kiese Laymon

His 2018 memoir, Heavy, deals with his difficult relationship with his mother—who instilled in him a love of reading and discipline and skill in writing, but who was in an abusive relationship and lived on very little money, and who beat Laymon 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. Heavy won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.

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.

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.

Kiese Laymon (born August 15, 1974) is an American writer, editor and a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of three full-length books: a novel, Long Division (2013), and two memoirs, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (2013) and Heavy (2018). Laymon's work deals with American racism, feminism, family, masculinity, geography, Hip-hop and Southern black life. His provocations, essays, and other works of short fiction appear on his blog, Cold Drank, as well as featured pieces written by guest contributors. Laymon has written essays and stories for numerous online publications, including Gawker, ESPN.com, The Washington Post, the New York Times, NPR, BuzzFeed, and The Guardian.