Kiese Laymon is a writer and the Ottilie Schillig Professor of English and Creative Writing at University of Mississippi. He is the author of three books: Heavy: An American Memoir, which received multiple awards and was on several best books of 2018 lists; a novel, Long Division; and an essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others. Laymon served as the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Nonfiction at the University of Iowa in fall 2017. He has written essays, stories, and reviews for several publications, including Esquire, McSweeneys, The New York Times, Granta, Vanity Fair, The Best American Series, Ebony, Paris Review, and more.
