Author
Kiese Laymon
Birth Date
August 15, 1974
(51 Years)
Associated Country
United States
Kiese Laymon is an American writer, professor, and cultural critic known for his deeply personal and incisive explorations of race, family, and the Black experience in the United States. He was born in Jackson, a place that profoundly shapes the setting and themes of his work.
Laymon is best known for his memoir Heavy: An American Memoir (2018), a powerful reflection on his relationship with his mother, his body, and systemic racism. He is also the author of the novel Long Division (2013) and the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (2013), all of which blend humor, vulnerability, and sharp social critique.
His writing is celebrated for its honesty, emotional depth, and bold engagement with difficult subjects. In addition to his literary work, Laymon is a professor and an influential voice in contemporary discussions on race, identity, and storytelling.
Laymon is best known for his memoir Heavy: An American Memoir (2018), a powerful reflection on his relationship with his mother, his body, and systemic racism. He is also the author of the novel Long Division (2013) and the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (2013), all of which blend humor, vulnerability, and sharp social critique.
His writing is celebrated for its honesty, emotional depth, and bold engagement with difficult subjects. In addition to his literary work, Laymon is a professor and an influential voice in contemporary discussions on race, identity, and storytelling.
Books
Long Division 2021
Written in a voice that’s alternately humorous, lacerating, and wise, Long Division features two interwoven stories. In the first, it’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised...
Heavy 2019
In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual...
The Fire This Time 2017
In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin’s 1962 “Letter to My Nephew,” which was later...
Kiese Laymon grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. That was where he started to write and where he began to seek to create an honest account of living in the US, a country striving to declare itself...