Kiese Laymon is an American writer, essayist, and editor. He is best known for his memoir Heavy: An American Memoir (2018), which was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award. Laymon's other works include the novel Long Division (2013), the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (2013), and the short story collection And So On (2019).