Kiese Laymon

Kiese Laymon
Born (1974-08-15) August 15, 1974
Jackson, Mississippi
Education

Indiana University Bloomington (Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing)

Oberlin College
Occupation Writer, editor, professor
Website kieselaymon.com

Kiese Laymon is an American writer, editor and a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi.[1] Author of Long Division and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, Laymon's work deals with American racism, feminism, family, masculinity, geography, Hip-hop and Southern black life.[2] His provocations, essays, and other works of short fiction appear on his blog, Cold Drank, as well as featured pieces written by guest contributors.[3] Laymon has written essays and stories for numerous online publications, including his work as a contributing editor at Gawker and frequent posts to ESPN.com.[4]

Career

Born and raised in Mississippi, Laymon earned his Bachelor of Arts at Oberlin College, and his Masters in Fine Arts at Indiana University.[5] While living and writing in upstate New York, Laymon's refusal to omit explicit aspects of Long Division that explore racial politics, prolonged negotiations with a major publishing group. Laymon's books were eventually picked up by the independent publisher Agate Publishing, which released his debut novel in June 2013.[6] In addition to Laymon's satirical time-travel novel Long Division, a collection of his autobiographical essays entitled, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America was also published by Agate in August 2013.[7] He has two books, a novel called And So On and a book called A Fat Black Memoir forthcoming from Scribner.[8]

Laymon was an associate professor of English and Africana Studies at Vassar College[9] before being hired as a professor in the Creative Writing MFA at the University of Mississippi.

Long Division

Long Division was named one of the Best of 2013 by a number of publications, including Buzzfeed, The Believer, Salon, Guernica, Contemporary Literature, Mosaic Magazine, Library Journal, Chicago Tribune and the Crunk Feminist Collective. It was also short-listed for the Believer Book Award, the Ernest Gaines Fiction Award, and the Morning News Tournament of Books. It won the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing on August 24. Long Division garnered positive reviews from all of the "big three" advance review outlets—Kirkus, Library Journal, and Booklist.

Additionally, literary journals such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Paris Review, and the Boston Review praised the novel. Alyssa Rosenberg of ThinkProgress and The Washington Post wrote that "If Laymon’s novel runs into some plotting problems over the course of its run, it succeeds in doing something more emotionally moving, producing a series of crystalline moments when City comes to a clearer understanding of the world he lives in–and the kind of man he wants to be in it." Novelist, professor, and social commentator Roxane Gay, in a piece for The Nation, called Long Division "[an] ambitious novel, and though it is raw and flawed, it is the most exciting book I’ve read all year. There’s nothing like it, both in terms of the scope of what the book tackles and the writing’s Afro Surrealist energy." In 2014, the novel was chosen for The Morning News Tournament of Books, but was eliminated in the first round by The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt in a verdict rendered by Hector Tobar. Three essays in "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America" have been included in the Best American series, the Best of Net award, and the Atlantic's Best Essays of 2013.

Selected works

In print

Published essays and articles

Audio book

References

  1. ↑ "University of Mississippi M.F.A. Faculty". July 21, 2015. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  2. ↑ McCall, Jason (November 20, 2013). "The Past is Not Dead: Time and Race in Kiese Laymon's "Long Division"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  3. ↑ Pauley, Nick (July 14, 2013). "Keeping it 100". Wine and Bowties. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Kiese Laymon". The Root. November 4, 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Kiese Laymon | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS". Jackson Free Press. February 15, 2013. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  6. ↑ Shengold, Nina. "Kiese Laymon Keeps it Real | Books & Authors | Hudson Valley | Hudson Valley; Chronogram". Chronogram.com. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  7. ↑ "First Time Author, Two New Books". The Rumpus.net. August 14, 2013. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  8. ↑ Williams, Stacie (March 10, 2013). "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon". The Rumpus. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  9. ↑ Valentine, Genevieve (May 30, 2013). "BEA 2013: Kiese Laymon: Chasing the Narrative". Publishersweekly.com. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  10. ↑ Kiese Laymon. "My Vassar College Faculty ID Makes Everything OK". Gawker. Gawker Media. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  11. ↑ Kiese Laymon. "Black churches taught us to forgive white people. We learned to shame ourselves". the Guardian. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  12. ↑ "The allure of Ole Miss football". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
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