Kiese Laymon

Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Kiese Laymon, a Vassar College professor, a columnist for The Guardian, and Gawker contributing editor, is the author of two highly praised recent books on race in America; the novel Long Division, winner of the William Soroyan International Prize and a Believer Book of the Year and Ernest Gaines Award Finalist; How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, a collection of essays from which selections have been included in The Best American Essays, the Best of the Net, the Atlantic's Best Essays of the Year; and the memoir Heavy. He is currently the Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi.