Kiese Laymon, "Heavy: An American Memoir"

Kiese Laymon, "Heavy: An American Memoir"

Laymon’s novel, Long Division, was named to several Best Of lists in 2013 and his collection of autobiographical essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, showed him as a powerful social and cultural commentator. In his new memoir, he expands on the experiences he discussed in his earlier works, talking bluntly and honestly about growing up with racism, income disparity, addiction, eating disorders, and a complicated mother-son dynamic. Often directly addressing his mother—a divorced, impoverished woman who became a political science professor at Jackson State—Laymon makes his story immediate and vivid, from his problems with weight, ostracism, violence, and gambling to his views on women and politics.

About the Author

Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Kiese Laymon, Ottilie Schillig Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi, is the author of the novel Long Division and a collection of essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. He is also the author of the memoir Heavy.

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Produced by Tom Warren