Arlington Reads: Kiese Laymon
An Arlington Reads Signature Author Event. This event has changed to virtual only and will be livestreamed and recorded.
Join us for a conversation between author Kiese Laymon and Library Director Diane Kresh about Laymon's memoir "Heavy" and the introduction he's writing for the Freedom Reads edition of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
About the book
In this stylish and complex memoir, Laymon presents bittersweet episodes of being a chubby outsider in 1980s Mississippi. He worships his long-suffering, resourceful grandmother, who loves the land her relatives farmed for generations and has resigned herself to the fact of commonplace bigotry. Laymon laces the memoir with clever, ironic observations about secrets, sexual trauma, self-deception, and pure terror related to his family, race, Mississippi, friends, and a country that refuses to love him and his community.
About the author
Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the author of the genre-bending novel, Long Division and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2018 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. Laymon is at work on several new projects, including the long poem, Good God, the horror comedy, And So On, the children’s book, City Summer, Country Summer and the film Heavy: An American Memoir. He is the founder of “The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative,” a program aimed at getting Mississippi kids and their parents more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing.
RSVP to receive the online link. The event will be available as a recording for 30 days on Arlington County's Youtube channel.
- Date:
- Thursday, May 19, 2022
- Time:
- 7:00pm - 9:00pm
- Audience:
- Events for High Schoolers Good for Adults Age 55+
- Categories:
- Artist Talk Lecture
- Calendar:
- Arlington Public Library