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Kiese Laymon

Goodreads Author

Born

Jackson, The United States

Website

http://kieselaymon.com/

Member Since

April 2013

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Kiese Laymon is a black southern writer, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University before graduating from Oberlin College. He earned an MFA from Indiana University and is the author of the forthcoming novel, Long Division in June 2013 and a collection of essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America in August 2013. Laymon is a contributing editor at gawker.com. He has written essays and stories for numerous publications including Esquire, ESPN.com, NPR, Gawker, Truthout.com, Longman’s Hip Hop Reader, Mythium and Politics and Culture. Laymon is currently an Associate Professor of English, Creative Writing and co-director of Africana Studies at Vassar College.

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Kiese Laymon’s books

Average rating: 4.36 · 53,057 ratings · 7,167 reviews · 25 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Kiese Laymon (Goodreads Author) (Foreword) 4.26 avg rating — 657,604 ratings — published 1982 — 356 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Heavy 4.48 avg rating — 38,408 ratings — published 2018 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Long Division 3.81 avg rating — 7,336 ratings — published 2013 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America 4.32 avg rating — 5,319 ratings — published 2013 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Name Is City 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	And So On 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	# 2 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hey Mama it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How to reduce weight: A Complete Guide 2022 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Long Division by Kiese Laymon (Goodreads Author), Sean Crisden (Reader) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Long Division

by Kiese Laymon (Goodreads Author)

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Kiese Laymon said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Jun 09, 2013 10:12PM · see review

Quotes by Kiese Laymon (?)

“America seems filled with violent people who like causing people pain but hate when those people tell them that pain hurts.”
― Kiese Laymon, Heavy

77 likes

“For the first time in my life, I realized telling the truth was way different from finding the truth, and finding the truth had everything to do with revisiting and rearranging words. Revisiting and rearranging words didn't only require vocabulary; it required will, and maybe courage. Revised word patterns were revised thought patterns. Revised thought patterns shaped memory. I knew, looking at all those words, that memories were there, I just had to rearrange, add, subtract, sit, and sift until I found a way to free the memory.”
― Kiese Laymon, Heavy

51 likes

“I learned you haven't read anything if you've only read something once or twice. Reading things more than twice was the reader version of revision.”
― Kiese Laymon, Heavy

48 likes

See all Kiese Laymon's quotes »

Polls

What book should we read in December?

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

4 votes, 28.6%

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

3 votes, 21.4%

Blood Child, and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

3 votes, 21.4%

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

2 votes, 14.3%

The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

2 votes, 14.3%

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

0 votes, 0.0%

The Quiet American by Graham Greene

0 votes, 0.0%

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

0 votes, 0.0%

14 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Shut Up & Read: Michael's Challenges 2013	2	137	May 12, 2013 06:18PM
Literary Fiction ...: Coming Attractions - 2013!	61	265	Oct 30, 2013 08:29AM
2023 & 2024 Readi...: October: The Clue (Cluedo) Challenge	166	155	Nov 02, 2013 12:15PM
Literary Fiction ...: Discussion: Long Division	142	200	Nov 24, 2013 09:26AM
The Blerd Book Club: Long Division Discussion 1/05/14 - Spoiler Alert!	4	59	Jan 05, 2014 02:27AM
Historical Fictio...: Tell Me a Story Treasure Hunt (Oct/Nov 2013): Scoring Thread	117	133	Jan 08, 2014 09:06PM
Reading with Style: Winter 13/14 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter 13/14	1113	149	Mar 01, 2014 03:25PM

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Kiese’s Quotes

“We black Southerners, through life, love, and labor, are the generators and architects of American music, narrative, language, capital, and morality. That belongs to us. Take away all those stolen West African girls and boys forced to find an oral culture to express, resist, and signify in the South, and we have no rich American idiom.”
― Kiese Laymon, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America

13 likes