activism
Anne Moody
body dysmorphia
Category=DNPB
Category=DS
Category=JBSL
Coming of Age in Mississippi
community
creative writing process
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Eudora Welty
Heavy
intersectionality
Jesmyn Ward
literary technique
Long Division
masculinity
McArthur
Memorial Drive
Men We Reaped
MS writers
Natasha Tretheway
One Writer's Beginning
personal narrative
racism
resilience
Richard Wright
US South
weight loss
William Faulkner
Product details
- ISBN 9781496859044
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 21 Aug 2025
- Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
In over a dozen interviews, Conversations with Kiese Laymon provides an in-depth look at author Kiese Laymon as an educator, creative writer, activist, family member, and Mississippian. Interviews capture surprising insights about Laymon’s life and craft. Within these pages, Laymon talks about his engagement with other writers, including Richard Wright, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty. These revelations situate his memoir, Heavy, among other great Mississippi autobiographies and memoirs, such as Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi, Welty’s One Writer’s Beginning, Jesmyn Wards’s Men We Reaped, and Natasha Tretheway’s Memorial Drive. In other interviews, he discusses his obsession with revision and deftly fields questions about pop culture, politics, and Black masculinity, along with a host of other pressing contemporary issues.
As the first collection of its kind, Conversations with Kiese Laymon serves as the perfect introduction to studying Laymon. The cross section of interviews included reflect Laymon’s humility, while simultaneously celebrating his accomplishments. Most importantly, the interviews reflect his stature as a major American literary figure. With topics ranging from hip-hop and family to politics and everything in between, this volume provides an unfiltered look at the prolific Southern writer in his own words.
As the first collection of its kind, Conversations with Kiese Laymon serves as the perfect introduction to studying Laymon. The cross section of interviews included reflect Laymon’s humility, while simultaneously celebrating his accomplishments. Most importantly, the interviews reflect his stature as a major American literary figure. With topics ranging from hip-hop and family to politics and everything in between, this volume provides an unfiltered look at the prolific Southern writer in his own words.
Constance Bailey is assistant professor of African American literature and folklore at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on Black women’s comedy and humor, Black speculative fiction, and African American folklore/oral traditions.
