Long Division

Kiese Laymon is a Black American author from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon spent his childhood and adolescence in the American South with his mother, who instilled in him a deep love of reading and writing. However, Laymon’s childhood family and home life were often fraught and have been the subject matter of many of his autobiographical essays, as well as his 2018 memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir. These aspects of Laymon’s childhood also parallel the primary subject matter of his debut novel Long Division. The novel is a coming-of-age story set in Jackson, Mississippi, and many of its protagonist’s struggles with his body, anxiety, and familial relationships mirror Laymon’s childhood experiences.

Laymon’s entry into the literary world was complex and meandering. Laymon began writing for the school newspaper while he was pursuing his undergraduate degree at Jackson State University; however, the university president, George Harmon, deemed Laymon’s treatment of race and other topics too “controversial” (Laymon, Kiese. “How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance.” Gawker, 28 July 2012). This discouragement didn’t end Laymon’s writing career but rather fueled his later essay “How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America,” which was published in Gawker magazine.