Laymon is currently the Ottilie Schillig Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi. He earned an MFA in Fiction from Indiana University. Laymon attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University before graduating from Oberlin College.
Kiese Laymon is a black southern writer, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation, and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free.Ī personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood-and continues through twenty-five years of haunting implosions and long reverberations. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. 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. We’ll be reading and discussing one of the texts from the NYU Office of Global Inclusion and Diversity’s Anti-Black Racism Education Resource List.
Join us on Friday, July 31 from 5-6pm on Zoom.
While we’re unable to meet in the theater, we’re taking our book club online. JOIN US FOR OUR VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB MEETING
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