Kiese Laymon is an American author and professor, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He attended Millsap College and Jackson State University before graduating from Oberlin College and earned his MFA in Fiction from Indiana University. He is the Ottilie Schillig Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi. He has written a novel entitled Long Division; a collection of essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America; and a memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir. He won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for nonfiction with his memoir, Heavy.
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