Order of Kiese Laymon Books

Kiese Laymon is an American author out of Mississippi. He is best known for writing Heavy: An American Memoir, which won 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.

Heavy was named as one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. Laymon is also the author of the novel, Long Division. In addition to his work as an author, Laymon is also the founder of The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative.

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

If You Like Kiese Laymon Books, You’ll Love…

• Jesmyn Ward
• Roxane Gay
• Ibram X. Kendi

Long Division is Laymon’s unique debut novel. The book follows a boy named Citoyen “City” Coldson who has a meltdown during a quiz show and becomes an internet celebrity. After that, he’s sent off to stay with his grandmother in the small community of Melahatchie. The town has recently saw the disappearance of a young girl named Baize Shephard. City ends up finding a strange book called “Long Division”. In this book, set in 1985, a boy named City Coldson and his friend Shalaya find a way to travel to the future where they steal a cellphone from a teenager named Baize Shephard. The City in the book will end up going back to 1964 while the City that is reading will see the two stories converge behind his grandmother’s house.

Laymon is also the author of Heavy: An American Memoir. The book sees the author look back at his upbringing as a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. The author charts his complex relationship with his family as well as ocvering his own experiences with anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and gambling.