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.
Edited by:
Constance Bailey
Imprint: University Press of Mississippi
Country of Publication: United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781496858115
ISBN 10: 1496858115
Series: Literary Conversations Series
Pages: 156
Publication Date: 15 September 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Introduction Chronology A Conversation with Kiese Laymon Roxane Gay / 2013 Hypertext Interview with Kiese Laymon Sheree Greer / 2015 Heavy Are the Words of Kiese Laymon Auburn Avenue / 2018 Writing Back to History: A Conversation with Kiese Laymon Monet Patrice Thomas / 2018 ""A Reckoning Is Different Than a Tell-All"": An Interview with Kiese Laymon Abigail Bereola / 2018 Kiese Laymon: ""Absent Fathers and Present Mothers"" Poppy Noor / 2018 ""I Don’t Want People to Forget the Sentence"": An Interview with Kiese Laymon Meghan Brown / 2019 The People of Jackson Are Ready: Chokwe Antar Lumumba in Conversation with Kiese Laymon Kiese Laymon / 2019 Interview with Scott Peters for the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University Scott Peters / 2020 The Flag and the Fury Radiolab/WNYC Studios / 2020 On Resilience, Tender Rituals, and Responsible Love: Talking with Kiese Laymon April Pejic / 2021 ""Conjuring Love"": A Conversation with Kiese Laymon Jane Ratcliffe / 2021 Kiese Laymon on Revision as Love and Love as Revision Jordan Kisner / 2022 Bayou Magazine Interview Marian Kaufman and Nora Seilheimer / 2023 Sitting in Silence: Special AWP Edition Interview with Kiese Maurice Carlos Ruffin / 2024 Food for Thought: An Interview with Kiese Laymon Constance Bailey / 2024 Index
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.
