Kiese Laymon

Born and raised in Mississippi, Laymon earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Oberlin College, and his Master's in Fine Arts at Indiana University.[6] 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".[7] 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.

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.[8] Heavy won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.[9]

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.[10][11]

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.[12]

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.[13][14]

Novels

• Long Division (2013), ISBN 978-1932841725

Memoirs

• How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (2013), ISBN 978-1932841770
• Heavy: An American Memoir (2018), ISBN 978-1501125652

Selected essays and articles

• "The Sport of American Responsibility." (ESPN.com, September 2012)
• "The Anniversary: Looking Up at Tupac Shakur" (Esquire.com, September 2012)
• "Living Under the Gun" (NPR, October 2012)
• "When Hating Kobe Bryant Goes Wrong" (ESPN.com, February 2013)
• "Our Kind of Ridiculous" (Gawker Media, March 2013)
• "This Was 1993: 20 Years Ago I Heard The Perfect Rap Song." (NPR, April 2013)
• "You Are the Second Person" (Guernica, June 2013)
• "The Worst of White Folks" (Gawker Media, July 2013)
• "Has America Progressed" (ESPN.com, June 2013)
• "D'Andre Brown's Basketball Dream" (ESPN.com, August 2013)
• "On Trayvon Martin, Black Manhood and Love" (Colorlines, January 2014)
• "Hey Mama" (Guernica, March 2014)
• "This Little Light of Ours" (Guernica, May 2014))
• "My Vassar College Faculty ID Makes Everything OK" (Gawker Media, November 2014)[15]
• "Black churches taught us to forgive white people. We learned to shame ourselves" (The Guardian, June 23, 2015)[16]
• "How They Do in Oxford" (ESPN.com, October 2015)[17]
• "What Bill Cosby Taught Me About Flying" (Lit Hub, February 2016)
• "Da Art of Storytellin' (a Prequel)" (The Fire This Time, edited by Jesmyn Ward, August 2016)
• "What I Pledge Allegiance To" (Fader Magazine, September 2016)