When Kiese Laymon got a message from his editor Tuesday directing him to the New York Times, the author and Rice University professor said he was “beyond shocked” to find his “Heavy: An American Memoir” at No. 60 of the publication’s “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.”
“I found out with everyone else,” said Laymon, the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of Creative Writing and English. “Then to see it next to ‘Middlesex’ and my friend Hua Hsu’s book ‘Stay True’ and Morrison’s ‘Mercy’ was just wild.”
In “Heavy,” Laymon candidly explores his tumultuous upbringing in Jackson, Mississippi, navigating complex relationships with his mother and family, as well as his own struggles with identity and weight. Through a deeply personal narrative, he confronts societal failures and the challenges of love and freedom, offering an insightful reflection on his journey over 25 years
Laymon is no stranger to national attention. He was named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow, and “Heavy” has previously been recognized with the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2018 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose and the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media. The New York Times also named it one of the “50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years,” but Laymon said this latest acknowledgement hits differently.
“It’s hard to actually talk about because the time they’re looking at is a quarter century,” Laymon said. “I’ve won awards before for a year or maybe a decade, never ever a century.”
To develop its list, the New York Times Book Review and the Upshot polled hundreds of celebrated authors and “literary luminaries” including Stephen King, Min Jin Lee, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Bonnie Garmus, Curtis Sittenfeld, R. L. Stine, Nana Kwame Adjei‑Brenyah, Junot Díaz, Sarah Jessica Parker, Anthony Doerr, James Patterson, Stephen Graham Jones, Elin Hilderbrand, Annette Gordon‑Reed, Rebecca Roanhorse, Marlon James, Roxane Gay, Jonathan Lethem, Sarah MacLean, Riley Sager, Ed Yong, Pico Iyer, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Paul Tremblay, Nick Hornby and more.
“We in the School of Humanities are aware of the profound impact Kiese’s work has had on readers and critics alike, but this newest honor recognizes the unique power of his literary voice and its very wide reach,” said Dean Kathleen Canning. “It is deeply gratifying to see his talent honored in this way. Kiese is an exceptional force in our growing creative writing program. This recognition of his work shines a national spotlight on the arts and the humanities at Rice.”
Laymon, whose fall 2024 course offerings such as “Verses/Versus: 2017 vs. 2023” already boast a double-digit waitlist, said he’s prepared if this recognition results in increased interest in his classes.
“I love teaching at Rice, and if this means longer waitlists, that’s a good thing,” said Laymon, who expressed gratitude to the writers, readers and critics who felt something when they read “Heavy.” “Now, back to the lab to make sure that these next two books I have coming out next year aren’t terrible.”
Those books, “Good God” and “City Summer, Country Summer,” will add to his catalog, joining the genre-bending novel “Long Division” and the essay collection “How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America.”
Learn more about Laymon here.