College of Arts and Sciences


Kiese Laymon Fall 2017 Case Writer: Kiese Laymon

Kiese Laymon Ad The Western Illinois University Department of English will host the Fred Ewing Case and Lola Austin Case Writer in Residence at 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 29, 2017 in the Sherman Hall third floor auditorium. The event is open free to the public.

The Fred Ewing Case and Lola Austin Case Writer-in-Residence supports bringing national writers of poetry and fiction to Western each year.

Kiese Laymon is a black southern writer, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi.   Laymon is the author of the novel, Long Division   and a collection of essays,  How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, the UK edition released in 2016. Laymon has written essays, stories and reviews for numerous publications.

Long Division was named one of the Best of 2013 by  Buzzfeed, The Believer, Salon, Guernica, Contemporary Literature, Mosaic Magazine, Library Journal, Chicago Tribune and the Crunk Feminist Collective, and won the 2014 Saroyan International Writing Award on November 10th. Three essays in "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America" have been included in the Best American series, the Best of Net award, and the Atlantic's Best Essays of 2013. He was selected a member of the Root 100 in 2013 and 2014 and Ebony Magazine Power 100 in 2015. 

Kiese Laymon has two books forthcoming, including a memoir called Heavy and the novel called And So On  which can be expected in 2017 and 2018, both from Scribner.

For more information on Laymon's reading, email Erika Wurth at et-wurth@wiu.edu. For more information about Laymon, visit http://www.kieselaymon.com/

WIU News Release on Kiese Laymon

 

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