Conversations with Kiese Laymon

Constance Bailey

$57.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

University Press of Mississippi
15 September 2025

Prose: non-fiction; Literature: history & criticism; Ethnic studies; Black & Asian studies

Series: Literary Conversations Series

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: 9781496859044
ISBN 10: 1496859049
Series: Literary Conversations Series
Pages: 156
Publication Date: 15 September 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

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.