The Department’s Visiting Writing Series brings esteemed poets, fiction writers, and non-fiction authors to our campus and community for engaging literary events. These events include public readings and provide a unique opportunity for students and the community to engage with contemporary literature and the creative process. The series features a diverse lineup of nationally and internationally recognized authors who contribute significantly to the literary landscape. Previous visiting writers have included award-winning poets and authors such as Ada Limón, Ann Beattie, Silas House, Roxane Gay, Viet Thanh Nquyen, Li-Young Lee, Nicole Chung, and Tayari Jones. This program not only enriches the academic environment but also provides aspiring writers with inspiration and practical knowledge from leading figures in the literary world. All events are free and open to the public. Support for the Visiting Writers Series is provided by generous donors. We welcome contributions to the English MFA Visiting Writers Fund.
Spring 2025 Events
Kiese Laymon
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
6:00 PM
Singletary Center for the Arts
Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of Long Division, which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, named a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times critics. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Barnes and Noble Discovery Award, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. Laymon is at work on the books, Good God, and City Summer, Country Summer, and a number of other film and television projects. He is the founder of The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative, a program based out of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, aimed at aiding young people in Jackson get more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing on their on their own terms, in their own communities. He is the co-host of Reckon True Stories with Deesha Philyaw. Kiese Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.
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For more information about the Visiting Writers Series contact Crystal Wilkinson or Robin Rahija.