Podcast appearances and mentions of Kiese Laymon

Growing up, Kiese Laymon thought of himself as a city kid. But he spent his childhood with a foot in two worlds: his mom's house in the capital city of Jackson, Mississippi and his grandma's house in a rural country town.It wasn't until Kiese left Mississippi that he came to understand that this question of city versus country actually meant a lot more. It carries a lot of baggage: the tensions between north and south, tectonic historical forces, and the contradictions of life in Mississippi.In this episode, our producer Justine Paradis sits down with writer Kiese Laymon for a conversation on this question of country versus city, what that has to do with the history of Black life in this country, and the story of Kiese's first children's picture book, his latest in a lifelong exploration of a complicated love of Mississippi.Featuring Kiese Laymon.Produced by Justine Paradis. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org. SUPPORTTo share your questions and feedback with Outside/In, call the show's hotline and leave us a voicemail. The number is 1-844-GO-OTTER. No question is too serious or too silly.Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. Follow Outside/In on Instagram, BlueSky, Tiktok, or join our private discussion group on Facebook. LINKSKiese Laymon's first children's book, City Summer, Country Summer. If you'd like to read more by Kiese, we recommend “Da Art of Storytellin' (A Prequel)”, his essay about Outkast, his grandmother, and stank. (Oxford American)Kiese adapted City Summer, Country Summer from this 2020 prose-poem essay. (New York Times)

Daria Burke is an author, executive, and healer-at-heart. She's also a grandchild grieving for her grandmother and a daughter estranged from her parents. In this episode, Daria shares the profound impact of losing her maternal grandmother at age seven and how that early loss reverberated through her life. This loss and grief exist alongside the immense healing she's done around growing up in poverty, childhood trauma, and her parents' absences, addictions, and the eventual estrangement from them. With the recent release of her memoir, Of My Own Making, Daria opens up about the moment, decades later, that reawakened the grief for her grandmother - finding a newspaper article about her fatal car accident. That discovery, and ensuing grief, started a new chapter in Daria's healing process. In our conversation, we talk about inherited trauma, the emotional weight of estrangement, the invisible grief of childhood neglect, Daria's healing practices, and how she  stays connected to her grandmother through what she calls “love taps.” Key Topics: What role Daria's grandmother played in her early childhood The ongoing impacts of childhood grief and unprocessed trauma How truth-telling is part of healing The collective grief she grew up around in Detroit of the 1980's Uncovering the grief she buried after her grandmother died Grieving for family members who are still alive Grief Practices Daria Shares: Giving herself permission to cry freely Meditative practices to connect with her grandmother Volunteering on holidays and creating new rituals Finding signs from her grandmother in the world around her Daria Burke is an American writer, speaker and award-winning business leader. A marketer by trade and a seeker at heart, Daria is a storyteller and sense-maker, weaving together personal experience and the science of healing and transformation to explore new ways of understanding how we choose who we become. This passion led her to complete Dr. Tara Swart's Neuroscience for Business course at MIT and Positive Psychology and Well-Being at Stanford, taught by Dr. Daryn Reicherter, an international expert in trauma psychiatry.  Her debut memoir, OF MY OWN MAKING (April 2025) explores trauma, neuroplasticity, and Post-Traumatic Growth through the lens of her own healing journey. Kiese Laymon called it “as profound a book about the treacherous experience of befriending ourselves as I've read this decade.” Part memoir, part methodology, OF MY OWN MAKING blends personal narrative with scientific insight, Daria inspires readers to reimagine the narratives that define their lives. Connect with Daria: Website: www.dariaburke.com Instagram: @dariaburke Resources & Links: Dougy Center: www.dougy.org Email the show: griefoutloud@dougy.org Production Note: Grief Out Loud is produced by Dougy Center: The National Grief Center for Children & Families, and is supported in part by The Chester Stephan Endowment Fund.

*Patreon- and Substack-only bonus episode teaser, click here for the full episode*In this episode of The Stacks Unabridged, we are joined once again by author Kiese Laymon, to discuss his first children's book, City Summer, Country Summer, and the emotional resonance of sports narratives. We also share how we're staying human in the midst of so much inhumanity.You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' website:https://www.thestackspodcast.com/unabridged/2025/4/18/tsu-45-kiese-laymonConnect with Kiese: Twitter | Instagram | WebsiteConnect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Substack | SubscribePurchasing books through Bookshop.org or Amazon earns The Stacks a small commission.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Two new picture books explore how the outside world can transform our relationships with our communities and ourselves. First, Kiese Laymon is out with a children's book about three Black boys who connect during a transformative summer in the South. With City Summer, Country Summer, Laymon says he wanted to explore the experience of getting lost as a kind of experimentation. In today's episode, the author speaks with NPR's Michel Martin about his wish to write a book about the emotional tenderness of Black boys. Then, The Littlest Drop is Sascha Alper's debut children's book, based on a parable from the indigenous Quechua people of South America. Brian Pinkney took over illustrations for the project after his father, Jerry Pinkney, died in 2020. In today's episode, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe brings Alper and Brian Pinkney together in conversation. The author and illustrator discuss the collaboration between father and son and Alper's desire to broaden the story beyond the climate crisis.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

No matter the question, reading is the answer. And in a year starting off like 2025 is, we certainly need a lot of answers to life's questions.I am thrilled to welcome fellow Angeleno bookworm Traci Thomas (host of The Stacks podcast) to talk about the most anticipated new book releases of 2025. We talk about novels and nonfiction by debut and beloved authors publishing this year and sorry not sorry about this conversation that will send your book budget soaring. There are so many good books to look forward to in the next six months.Also in this episode, Traci really gives me a lot to think about in terms of how we talk about books and why it's okay to be publicly critical of books that don't work for us. As an author who is jumpy about that concept, Traci really shifted my perspective on this.You can listen to Traci on The Stacks podcastYou can follow Traci on IGYou can read Traci on her substack UnstackedYou can join Traci's PatreonFULL SHOW NOTES HEREJOIN THE SECRET STUFF BOOK CLUBMOST ANTICIPATED 2025 BOOKS:January Books:Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani PerryWitchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady HendrixFebruary Books:Pure Innocent Fun: Essays by Ira Madison IIIShow Don't Tell by Curtis SittenfeldDeath Takes Me by Cristina Rivera GarzaOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El AkkadMarch Books:Hot Air by Marcy DermanskyI'll Love You Forever: Notes from a K-Pop Fan by Giaae KwonThere is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian GoldstoneApril Books:Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life by Maggie SmithThe Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika JaouadAuthority: Essays by Andrea Long ChuMay Books:Love and Exile by Shon FayeThe Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s by Paul ElieJune Books:Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins ReidWeepers by Peter MendelsunALSO MENTIONED in this episode:Sara Hildreth of Fiction MattersEpisode 122 of The Stacks Podcast with Kiese Laymon, Breathe by Imani Perry Book ClubEpisode 222: Stephen King Starter Kit Part IIThe Keep It PodcastRead Traci's Most Anticipated List of 2025 with a different set of books than she talks about hereSuleika Jaouad's Substack, The Isolation JournalsMORE BOOKS mentioned in this episode:Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson South to America by Imani PerryVexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation by Imani PerryMay We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem by Imani PerryBreathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani PerryBetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi CoatesLooking for Lorraine by Imani PerryThe Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady HendrixHow to Sell a Haunted House by Grady HendrixRomantic Comedy by Curtis SittenfeldAmerican Wife by Curtis SittenfeldYou Like It Darker by Stephen KingLiliana's Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera GarzaAmerican War by Omar El AkkadEvicted by Matthew DesmondReagan: His Life and Legend by Max BootYou Can Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika JaouadThe Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika JaouadBeloved by Toni MorrisonThe Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid SUBSCRIBE to 10 Things To Tell You so you never miss an episode!CLICK HERE for episode show notesFOLLOW @10ThingsToTellYou on InstagramFOLLOW @10ThingsToTellYou on FacebookSIGN UP for episode emails, links, and show notesJOIN Laura Tremaine's SECRET SUBSTACKBUY THE BOOK: Share Your Stuff. I'll Go First. by Laura TremaineBUY THE BOOK: The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs by Laura Tremaine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No matter the question, reading is the answer. And in a year starting off like 2025 is, we certainly need a lot of answers to life's questions. I am thrilled to welcome fellow Angeleno bookworm Traci Thomas (host of The Stacks podcast) to talk about the most anticipated new book releases of 2025. We talk about novels and nonfiction by debut and beloved authors publishing this year and sorry not sorry about this conversation that will send your book budget soaring. There are so many good books to look forward to in the next six months. Also in this episode, Traci really gives me a lot to think about in terms of how we talk about books and why it's okay to be publicly critical of books that don't work for us. As an author who is jumpy about that concept, Traci really shifted my perspective on this. You can listen to Traci on The Stacks podcast You can follow Traci on IG You can read Traci on her substack Unstacked You can join Traci's Patreon FULL SHOW NOTES HERE JOIN THE SECRET STUFF BOOK CLUB MOST ANTICIPATED 2025 BOOKS: January Books: Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix February Books: Pure Innocent Fun: Essays by Ira Madison III Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad March Books: Hot Air by Marcy Dermansky I'll Love You Forever: Notes from a K-Pop Fan by Giaae Kwon There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone April Books: Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life by Maggie Smith The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad Authority: Essays by Andrea Long Chu May Books: Love and Exile by Shon Faye The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s by Paul Elie June Books: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid Weepers by Peter Mendelsun ALSO MENTIONED in this episode: Sara Hildreth of Fiction Matters Episode 122 of The Stacks Podcast with Kiese Laymon, Breathe by Imani Perry Book Club Episode 222: Stephen King Starter Kit Part II The Keep It Podcast Read Traci's Most Anticipated List of 2025 with a different set of books than she talks about here Suleika Jaouad's Substack, The Isolation Journals MORE BOOKS mentioned in this episode: Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson  South to America by Imani Perry Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation by Imani Perry May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem by Imani Perry Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates Looking for Lorraine by Imani Perry The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld You Like It Darker by Stephen King Liliana's Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza American War by Omar El Akkad Evicted by Matthew Desmond Reagan: His Life and Legend by Max Boot You Can Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith  Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad Beloved by Toni Morrison The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid   SUBSCRIBE to 10 Things To Tell You so you never miss an episode! CLICK HERE for episode show notes FOLLOW @10ThingsToTellYou on Instagram FOLLOW @10ThingsToTellYou on Facebook SIGN UP for episode emails, links, and show notes JOIN Laura Tremaine's SECRET SUBSTACK BUY THE BOOK: Share Your Stuff. I'll Go First. by Laura Tremaine BUY THE BOOK: The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs by Laura Tremaine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The international bestselling author returns to the Walsh family in her latest novel My Favorite Mistake; Bridget Raymundo shares what books the internet was loving this year; the book that defines “genre-bending” to Matthew R. Morris, a Juno Award-winning jazz singer who loves to birdwatch; and remembering celebrated Canadian thriller author Andrew Pyper on this episode of The Next Chapter.Books discussed in this episode include:Collide by Bal KhabraI Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham JonesA Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose SutherlandHeavy: An American Memoir by Kiese LaymonThe Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon chat with the hilarious and multitalented Samantha Irby, author of multiple wickedly funny essay collections, as well as writer for multiple television series. Samantha talks about her own confidence and how she's able to write guiltless memoir pieces. She distinguishes between the experiences of watching what she's written versus reading what she's written. Has she bougie-ed out of her past? And, of course, what are the ins and outs of comedy-writing? Can it be taught? What are the industry-wide issues with gatekeeping? And who do you write to?  Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned bitches gotta eat! (Samantha Irby blog) “My Mother, My Daughter” (Samantha Irby, The Rumpus 2012) We Are Never Meeting In Real Life (Samantha Irby) Meaty (Samantha Irby) New Year, Same Trash (Samantha Irby) Wow, No Thank You (Samantha Irby) Quietly Hostile (Samantha Irby) Watch List: Shrill And Just Like That: Sex and the City Tuca and Bertie Atlanta Mea Culpa Paul Mooney Mike Epps Mo'Nique Shirley Hemphill Nell Carter Listening List: “Upgrade U” (Beyoncé) More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw) Heavy (Kiese Laymon) Long Division (Kiese Laymon) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon) Ursa Short Fiction podcast (Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton) Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.  Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong Associate Producer: Marina Leigh Episode Editor: Kelly Araja Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa Audience Director: Katie Johnston Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon dig into a classic essay by Toni Morrison, “The Work You Do, the Person You Are,” published in The New Yorker in May 2017. They talk about labor and self-identity — how our feelings of worth can become so closely tied to the work we do, in ways that can become unhealthy, both in the corporate world and in the art we create.  Kiese Laymon: “Without labor and work, I don't know who I am. And I think that's terrifying.”  Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned “The Work You Do, the Person You Are” Toni Morrison (The New Yorker, 2017) Daddy Was a Number Runner (Louise Meriwether, 1970) “On Writing and the Business of Writing” (Carmen Maria Machado, 2022) Playing in the Dark (Toni Morrison, 1992) "The Cask of Amontillado" (Edgar Allan Poe, 1846) More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw) Heavy (Kiese Laymon) Long Division (Kiese Laymon) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon) City Summer, Country Summer (Kiese Laymon & Alexis Franklin) Ursa Short Fiction podcast (Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton) Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.  Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong Associate Producer: Marina Leigh Episode Editor: Kelly Araja Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa Audience Director: Katie Johnston Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa

On this episode of #velshibannedbookclub, Kiese Laymon joins MSNBC host and Citizen board member Ali Velshi to discuss his banned book "Heavy." Because of its unflinching look at the messiness and weight of love, Laymon's book was banned in Mississippi (right alongside Toni Morrison's work). 

On the latest episode of Reckon True Stories, Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon are joined by MacArthur Genius and National Book Award Winner Dr. Imani Perry to discuss genre, personal stories and the ethical commitment to those we write about, the utilization of craft to bring the reader close to the experience and the body, the body as political, Black women and silence, mobility, music, and mothering.  They ask the question of what we owe of ourselves as writers — and particularly Black writers— to our audience, and they explore what it looks like to maintain boundaries, to self-preserve, and to rest. In Kiese's words, he calls it learning “the art of not just no, but not now.” Kiese praises Dr. Perry on how she has never written the same kind of book twice, and in this episode, she talks about her inspirations, how she chooses what to write towards, and what questions she is consistently leaning into in her work. Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned South to America (Imani Perry) Breathe: A Letter To My Sons (Imani Perry) Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (Imani Perry) Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Imani Perry) May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem (Imani Perry) Percival Everett A Dangerously High Threshold for Pain (Imani Perry) Alice Walker Nikky Finney “She Changed Black Literature Forever. Then She Disappeared.” (Imani Perry, New York Times 2021) “‘Palmares' Is An Example Of What Grows When Black Women Choose Silence” (Deesha Philyaw, Electric Literature 2021) Palmares (Gayl Jones) Robert Stepto Hazel Carby Zora Neale Hurston Katherine Dunham Moms Mabley 1000 Words (Jami Attenberg) Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “The Apocalypse” (Emily Raboteau) How To Live Free In A Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir (Shayla Lawson) A Mercy (Toni Morrison) Listening List: Nina Simone Miles Davis “Nobody's Supposed To Be Here” (Deborah Cox) More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw) Heavy (Kiese Laymon) Long Division (Kiese Laymon) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon) City Summer, Country Summer (Kiese Laymon & Alexis Franklin) Ursa Short Fiction podcast (Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton) Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.  Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong Associate Producer: Marina Leigh Episode Editor: Kelly Araja Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa Audience Director: Katie Johnston Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa

Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon discuss the “manosphere,” — specifically how Black men show up in the space of it, and how Black women respond to it. Deesha talks about a “de-centering of romance” and recognition that women have come to see that their lives are full and beautiful without being partnered with a man who does not listen to or respect them.  They are interested in the deconstruction of the notions of masculinity, of repair and accountability, and of the homosociality/eroticism of the manosphere, as well as the pulling away of intimacy between cishet men. And they discuss what the work might look like. Therapy, radical change, deconstructing notions of masculinity, and possibly even retiring the terms “masculinity” and “femininity” altogether. Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned “My Brush with the Black Manosphere” (Nicole Young, Elle 2022) Warsan Shire Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man (Steve Harvey) bell hooks Audrey Lorde “Men are lost. Here's a map out of the wilderness.” (Christine Emba, The Washington Post 2023) “How To Be A Better Man Right Now” (Jeff Gordinier, Esquire 2024) Listening List: Jokes On You (podcast hosted by Mel Mitchell and Talle) “The disappearance of men” (Christine Emba, YouTube 2024) Instagram Reel by Ari Jai More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw) Heavy (Kiese Laymon) Long Division (Kiese Laymon) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon) Ursa Short Fiction podcast (Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton) Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.  Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong Associate Producer: Marina Leigh Episode Editor: Kelly Araja Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa Audience Director: Katie Johnston Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa

Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon sit down with Minda Honey to discuss her recently published memoir, The Heartbreak Years, and the role that Honey's own experiences, and the stories told to her by family, have had on shaping her work.  With her debut, Honey — who also edits Black Joy at Reckon — was praised for her ability to linger in the body and the desires of a Black woman while also seamlessly moving through not just place, but time. As Kiese Laymon says, “I actually thought what Minda was doing was like a new kind of travel writing. And so I was just so excited when everybody got to read it.” Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned The Heartbreak Years (Minda Honey) “The Reality of Dating All Men When You're Black” (Minda Honey, Gawker 2014) “Woman of Color in Wide Open Spaces” (Minda Honey, Longreads 2017) Black Joy at Reckon Cheryl Strayed's Dear Sugar Sari Botton Sweet Valley High Series (Francine Pascal) Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred D. Taylor) Milk Blood Heat (Dantiel Moniz) “On Being Black in Kentucky and Charles Booker's Historic Run for Senate” (Minda Honey, Salon 2020) Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghost (Crystal Wilkinson) Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston) “Writing for the Bad Faith Reader” (Susie Dumond, Melissa Febos, BookRiot 2023) Danielle Buckingham  “A Farewell to Fuckboys in the Age of Consent Culture” (Minda Honey, Longreads 2018) Listening List: “Doo Wop (That Thing)” (Lauryn Hill) More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw) Heavy (Kiese Laymon) Long Division (Kiese Laymon) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon) Ursa Short Fiction podcast (Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton) Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.  Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong Associate Producer: Marina Leigh Episode Editor: Kelly Araja Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa Audience Director: Katie Johnston Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa

Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon chat with writer Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh, The Queen of the Night, and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. The three writers talk about their journeys in the publishing industry, and what success has meant to each of them, specifically in regards to money. They discuss Chee's essay, “My Inheritance Was My Father's Last Lesson To Me,” where he writes about his relationship to money, how it changes over time, and what the relationship between anxiety, money, and body looks like.  Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays (Alexander Chee) “How to Unlearn Everything” (Alexander Chee, Vulture 2019) Edinburgh (Alexander Chee) The Queen of the Night (Alexander Chee) Other Peoples' Husbands (forthcoming by Alexander Chee) “When Horror is the Truth-Teller” (Alexander Chee, Guernica 2023) “My Inheritance Was My Father's Last Lesson To Me, And I Am Still Learning It” (Alexander Chee, Buzzfeed 2018) Damon Young “Storycraft: Point of Telling” (Junot Diaz, StoryWorlds 2023) Jesus' Son (Denis Johnson) The Children's Hospital (Chris Adrian) The War: A Memoir (Marguerite Duras) Sarah Schulman The Book of Love (Kelly Link) Enter Ghost (Isabella Hammad) Notes from an Island (Tove Jansson) The Moomins and the Great Flood (Tove Jansson) Same Bed Different Dreams (Ed Park) Listening List: Luther Vandross Favorite Albums of Each Year (Hanif Abdurraqib, Medium, 2016 - 2023) CCFX Lil Nas X Yeah Yeah Yeahs Omar Apollo Billie Eilish Nicki Minaj Japanese Breakfast Angel Olsen U.S. Girls Wet Leg More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw) Heavy (Kiese Laymon) Long Division (Kiese Laymon) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon) Ursa Short Fiction podcast (Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton) Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.  Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong Associate Producer: Marina Leigh Episode Editor: Kelly Araja Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa Audience Director: Katie Johnston Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa

Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon discuss the complicated process of writing about family — specifically parents. They talk about the ways parents fail, how they disappoint, but why it is important, and necessary when writing about family and those we love, to give them grace, and allow them the room to make mistakes. They ask the question, What do we owe to those we write about? And they call for writers to be guided, first and foremost, by love.  Deesha and Kiese talk about their own relationships with their parents, the processing and tending to those relationships, and how they moved through feelings of shame and anger while working through layers of grief.  Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned Heavy (Kiese Laymon) “Snap” (Deesha Philyaw, Pipe Wrench Magazine 2021) “How Can You Be Mad At Someone Who's Dying Of Cancer?” (Deesha Philyaw, Full Grown People 2015) “Whiting” (Deesha Philyaw, Short Reads 2023) “These Are Your Memories” (Kiese's mother's letter, 2018)  “If We Can Soar: What Birmingham Roller Pigeons Offer the Men of South Central” (Shanna B. Tiayon, Pipe Wrench Magazine 2021) More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw) Heavy (Kiese Laymon) Long Division (Kiese Laymon) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon) Ursa Short Fiction podcast (Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton) Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.  Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong Associate Producer: Marina Leigh Episode Editor: Kelly Araja Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa Audience Director: Katie Johnston Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa

This week on Black & Published we're introducing you to a new show that we love, Reckon True Stories hosted by acclaimed authors Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon. Guests for Season One include writers Roxane Gay, Imani Perry, Alexander Chee, Minda Honey, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Samantha Irby. Reckon True Stories is a celebration of new and classic nonfiction – the essays, journalism, and memoirs that inspire us, that change the world, and help us connect with each other. Show credits: Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon Show producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark ArmstrongAssociate producer: Marina LeighEpisode editor: Kelly ArajaProduced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon News. Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. NaveUrsa Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, and Mark ArmstrongSupport the Show.Follow the Show: IG: @blkandpublished Twitter: @BLKandPublished Follow Me:IG: @nikesha_elise Twitter: @Nikesha_Elise Website: www.newwrites.com

In the premiere episode of Reckon True Stories, co-hosts and acclaimed authors Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies) and Kiese Laymon (Heavy, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, Long Division) come together to kick off a season where nonfiction takes the spotlight. They talk about their own journeys to writing nonfiction, the distinctions they make between their essay writing and fiction writing, as well as how they came to collaborate and work together in the publishing industry.  Deesha and Kiese discuss writing on their own terms, revising their own ideas of what an essay is “supposed” to do or look like, and putting themselves back into the writing, while also exploring what makes for a compelling essay — calling for the writer to not lose the storytelling aspect in their nonfiction work. Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned Robert Jones Jr. The Fire This Time (Jesmyn Ward) Becoming (Michelle Obama) Damon Young Emma Carmichael “The Girl Is Mine” (Deesha Philyaw, Literary Mama 2004) Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce  Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison) “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poetry Foundation) “Annabel Lee” (Edgar Allan Poe, Poetry Foundation) Yusef Komunyakaa  How to Sit (Tyrese Coleman) “Water Come Back To You: On Trying To Write About Love” (Deesha Philyaw, Split Lip Mag 2021) “Whiting” (Deesha Philyaw, Short Reads 2023) “The 13 Guys You'll Meet On A Dating App” (Deesha Philyaw, Medium 2019) “If He Hollers Let Him Go” (Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, The Believer 2013) “The Case for Reparations” (Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic 2014) “I Called Out American Dirt's Racism. I Won't Be Silenced.” (Myriam Gurba, Vox 2020) Creep: Accusations and Confessions (Myriam Gurba) “On No Longer Being A Hysterical Woman” (Nafissa Thompson-Spires, The Paris Review 2020) Oldster (Sari Botton) “Feral” (Staci Greason, Oldster 2023) Memoir Monday Electric Literature More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw) Heavy (Kiese Laymon) Long Division (Kiese Laymon) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon) Ursa Short Fiction podcast Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.  Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong Associate Producer: Marina Leigh Episode Editor: Kelly Araja Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa Audience Director: Katie Johnston Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa

Dawnie Walton and Deesha Philyaw introduce us to Reckon True Stories, a brand new podcast hosted by Deesha and acclaimed author Kiese Laymon, dedicated to all things nonfiction. Listen, then follow the show in your favorite podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://link.chtbl.com/truestories Guests for Season One include writers Roxane Gay, Imani Perry, Alexander Chee, Minda Honey, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Samantha Irby. Produced in partnership with Reckon. We'll also have more episodes of Ursa Short Fiction coming this fall! Sign up for email updates: https://ursastory.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://ursastory.com/join

This week on SouthBound, host Tommy Tomlinson talks to Deesha Philyaw, author of “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies,” and Kiese Laymon, author of books including “Heavy” and “Long Division.” They're teaming up for a new podcast on nonfiction writing, and they have lots of thoughts about it.

Reckon and Ursa Story Company are proud to present Reckon True Stories, a new podcast hosted by acclaimed authors Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies) and Kiese Laymon (Heavy, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, Long Division), all about the stories we tell and how they impact our culture.  Guests for Season One include writers Roxane Gay, Imani Perry, Alexander Chee, Minda Honey, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Samantha Irby.  Reckon True Stories is a celebration of new and classic nonfiction – the essays, journalism, and memoirs that inspire us, that change the world, and help us connect with each other.

In this episode, Kiese Laymon (author of Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourself in America, and Heavy: An American Memoir) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to convince your strict religious parents to let you go to an out-of-state college, whether to report a coworker's insensitive gym behavior to HR, and how to deal with a mom who forgets to take her medication and immediately uses a racial slur. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate's membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It's just $15 for your first three months. This podcast is produced by Se'era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Kiese Laymon (author of Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourself in America, and Heavy: An American Memoir) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to convince your strict religious parents to let you go to an out-of-state college, whether to report a coworker's insensitive gym behavior to HR, and how to deal with a mom who forgets to take her medication and immediately uses a racial slur. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate's membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It's just $15 for your first three months. This podcast is produced by Se'era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Kiese Laymon (author of Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourself in America, and Heavy: An American Memoir) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to convince your strict religious parents to let you go to an out-of-state college, whether to report a coworker's insensitive gym behavior to HR, and how to deal with a mom who forgets to take her medication and immediately uses a racial slur. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate's membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It's just $15 for your first three months. This podcast is produced by Se'era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Kiese Laymon (author of Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourself in America, and Heavy: An American Memoir) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to convince your strict religious parents to let you go to an out-of-state college, whether to report a coworker's insensitive gym behavior to HR, and how to deal with a mom who forgets to take her medication and immediately uses a racial slur. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate's membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It's just $15 for your first three months. This podcast is produced by Se'era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Kiese Laymon (author of Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourself in America, and Heavy: An American Memoir) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to convince your strict religious parents to let you go to an out-of-state college, whether to report a coworker's insensitive gym behavior to HR, and how to deal with a mom who forgets to take her medication and immediately uses a racial slur. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate's membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It's just $15 for your first three months. This podcast is produced by Se'era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Kiese Laymon (author of Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourself in America, and Heavy: An American Memoir) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to convince your strict religious parents to let you go to an out-of-state college, whether to report a coworker's insensitive gym behavior to HR, and how to deal with a mom who forgets to take her medication and immediately uses a racial slur. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate's membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It's just $15 for your first three months. This podcast is produced by Se'era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trigger warning: This podcast episode discusses racism, rape, eating disorders, and abuse.   For March, Ian chose Kiese Laymon's: Heavy as his reading choice. Heavy is a memoir that is, well, heavy, taking the form of a letter written to the author's mother. In the letter, Laymon opens up and discusses his life and upbringing to this point both from the viewpoint of a family dynamic, but also as a black man born in the 70s. Heavy explores not only the physical heaviness a person carries with them, but also the spiritual, and any other kinds that come with living a life.    For the month of April, Ronnie chose a debut novel by Bethany Baptiste: The Poisons We Drink! Make sure to read along and tweet any thoughts to us over at Twitter.Com/@sharedpagespod  

Our text for today's episode is “John Thompson, b. 1941,” a short eulogy essay by the writer Kiese Laymon in which he reflects on the special affection that not just he but also his “aunts, mother and grandmother” felt for Thompson and his Georgetown basketball team when Laymon was growing up. The coach was more than just a winning coach; he was an avatar of Black America, and a symbol of Black excellence and paternal strength and solidity. Laymon writes:From a distance, I saw Thompson as representative, our imaginary coach who was once a decorated player, who backed up Bill Russell for the champion Boston Celtics. That decorated player who backed up Bill Russell was once a scared Black child, like every Black child I'd met in the universe, just longing to have a fair shot at gracefully winning and graciously losing.…Thompson's national championship and his subsequent loss in 1985 made real for me the representative possibilities and consequences of publicly winning and losing in America while Black. Though Thompson was our imaginary coach, in this eerie way we were his real team. If Thompson lost, and Georgetown lost, it felt as if my race lost. Even at 9 I knew there should have been more Black coaches in all the sports I watched since nearly all the best players were Black. I knew that there was nothing as joyful as publicly beating white Americans in anything simply because white Americans were allowed to play, cheat, coach, referee, own and win whether they actually showed up or not. My guests on the show today are Laymon himself, professor of English and creative writing at Rice University and author of, among other books, the essay collection  How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, the novel Long Division, and the memoir Heavy; and Jason Sokol, professor at history the university of New Hampshire and author of, among other books, There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights and The Heavens Might Crack The Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Two personal notes about this episode: Jason is my oldest friend on the planet. We went to pre-school together and have been close friends since. And Jason and Kiese were friends at Oberlin College, where they played basketball together and talked ideas, history, race, and the rest. As you'll hear on the episode, they haven't spoken since they graduated, so this is a bit of a reunion.The audio clip at the beginning is from the song “Georgetown Press,” by Wale.Eminent Americans is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Eminent Americans at danieloppenheimer.substack.com/subscribe

"The Movement Made Us takes literature to a momentous Southern Black space to which I honestly never thought a book could take us. This is literally the Movement that made us and both Davids love us whole here with a creation that is as ingenious as it is soulfully sincere. Stunning."--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy. A dynamic family exchange that pivots between the voices of a father and son, The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride (Harper, 2022) is a unique work of oral history and memoir, chronicling the extraordinary story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its living legacy embodied in Black Lives Matter. David Dennis Sr, a core architect of the movement, speaks out for the first time, swapping recollections both harrowing and joyful with David Jr, a journalist working on the front lines of change today. Taken together, their stories paint a critical portrait of America, casting one nation's image through the lens of two individual Black men and their unique relationship. Playful and searching, anxious and restorative, fearless and driving, this intimate memoir features scenes from across David Sr's life, as he becomes involved in the movement, tries to move beyond it, and ultimately returns to it to find final solace and new sense of self--revealing a survivor who travels eternally with a cabal of ghosts. A crucial addition to Civil Rights history, The Movement Made Us is the story of a nation reckoning with change and the hopes, struggles, setbacks, and triumphs of modern Black life. This is it: the extant chronicle of why we live, why we move, and for what we are made. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

"The Movement Made Us takes literature to a momentous Southern Black space to which I honestly never thought a book could take us. This is literally the Movement that made us and both Davids love us whole here with a creation that is as ingenious as it is soulfully sincere. Stunning."--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy. A dynamic family exchange that pivots between the voices of a father and son, The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride (Harper, 2022) is a unique work of oral history and memoir, chronicling the extraordinary story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its living legacy embodied in Black Lives Matter. David Dennis Sr, a core architect of the movement, speaks out for the first time, swapping recollections both harrowing and joyful with David Jr, a journalist working on the front lines of change today. Taken together, their stories paint a critical portrait of America, casting one nation's image through the lens of two individual Black men and their unique relationship. Playful and searching, anxious and restorative, fearless and driving, this intimate memoir features scenes from across David Sr's life, as he becomes involved in the movement, tries to move beyond it, and ultimately returns to it to find final solace and new sense of self--revealing a survivor who travels eternally with a cabal of ghosts. A crucial addition to Civil Rights history, The Movement Made Us is the story of a nation reckoning with change and the hopes, struggles, setbacks, and triumphs of modern Black life. This is it: the extant chronicle of why we live, why we move, and for what we are made. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

"The Movement Made Us takes literature to a momentous Southern Black space to which I honestly never thought a book could take us. This is literally the Movement that made us and both Davids love us whole here with a creation that is as ingenious as it is soulfully sincere. Stunning."--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy. A dynamic family exchange that pivots between the voices of a father and son, The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride (Harper, 2022) is a unique work of oral history and memoir, chronicling the extraordinary story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its living legacy embodied in Black Lives Matter. David Dennis Sr, a core architect of the movement, speaks out for the first time, swapping recollections both harrowing and joyful with David Jr, a journalist working on the front lines of change today. Taken together, their stories paint a critical portrait of America, casting one nation's image through the lens of two individual Black men and their unique relationship. Playful and searching, anxious and restorative, fearless and driving, this intimate memoir features scenes from across David Sr's life, as he becomes involved in the movement, tries to move beyond it, and ultimately returns to it to find final solace and new sense of self--revealing a survivor who travels eternally with a cabal of ghosts. A crucial addition to Civil Rights history, The Movement Made Us is the story of a nation reckoning with change and the hopes, struggles, setbacks, and triumphs of modern Black life. This is it: the extant chronicle of why we live, why we move, and for what we are made. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

"The Movement Made Us takes literature to a momentous Southern Black space to which I honestly never thought a book could take us. This is literally the Movement that made us and both Davids love us whole here with a creation that is as ingenious as it is soulfully sincere. Stunning."--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy. A dynamic family exchange that pivots between the voices of a father and son, The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride (Harper, 2022) is a unique work of oral history and memoir, chronicling the extraordinary story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its living legacy embodied in Black Lives Matter. David Dennis Sr, a core architect of the movement, speaks out for the first time, swapping recollections both harrowing and joyful with David Jr, a journalist working on the front lines of change today. Taken together, their stories paint a critical portrait of America, casting one nation's image through the lens of two individual Black men and their unique relationship. Playful and searching, anxious and restorative, fearless and driving, this intimate memoir features scenes from across David Sr's life, as he becomes involved in the movement, tries to move beyond it, and ultimately returns to it to find final solace and new sense of self--revealing a survivor who travels eternally with a cabal of ghosts. A crucial addition to Civil Rights history, The Movement Made Us is the story of a nation reckoning with change and the hopes, struggles, setbacks, and triumphs of modern Black life. This is it: the extant chronicle of why we live, why we move, and for what we are made. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

This month's pick was Ronnie's and she chose, "The Wishing Game" by Meg Shaffer. After reading Irving's, The Cider House Rules we needed something a bit lighter so this feels like a perfect February read. When a reclusive writer who hasn't published a novel in years holds a contest on their private island, Lucy Hart needs to win. She wants to adopt a child but doesn't have the space or funds and winning this contest will giver her everything she needs. In this novel, the characters compete not only in the competition but with their traumas and fears in a wholesome romp. Listen to the whole episode to find out what we thought! We'd love to hear what you thought as well over at SharedPagesPod on Twitter.   Next month's episode is Heavy by Kiese Laymon!

Notes and Links to Martha Anne Toll's Work         For Episode 221, Pete welcomes Martha Anne Toll, and the two discuss, among other topics, her early reading and writing and written word-heavy household, her love of music and other artistic pursuits, and the way muses have worked in her life and in her novel, ideas of grief, survivor's guilt and connection, real-life tragedies and heroes from the Holocaust that informed her writing, and other salient themes from her book like permanence, memory, and connection.     Martha Anne Toll's debut novel, THREE MUSES, was shortlisted for the Gotham Book Prize and won the Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction. THREE MUSES has received glowing tributes since it came out in September 2022. She writes fiction, essays, and book reviews, and reads anything that's not nailed down.     She brings a long career in social justice to her work covering authors of color and women writers as a critic and author interviewer at NPR Books, the Washington Post, Pointe Magazine, The Millions, and elsewhere. She also publishes short fiction and essays in a wide variety of outlets. Toll is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and serves on the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. ' Her second novel, DUET FOR ONE, will be out in early 2025. Buy Three Muses   Martha's Website   New York Journal of Books Review of Three Muses     At about 2:00, Martha provides a cool definition At about 2:25, Martha talks about her future project-her book coming out in 2025, and she shouts out places to buy Three Muses At about 4:20, Martha discusses her early reading and writing life, and the ways in which her parents influenced her habits At about 7:15, Martha traces her writing journey At about 8:40, Martha talks about inspiring and beloved writers (like Alex Chee, Garth Greenwell, Kiese Laymon, Vikram seth and shirley hazzard) and writing in contemporary times, as well as how working as a book reviewer affects her own reading for pleasure At about 10:55, Martha speaks to Pete's questions  At about 12:10, Martha gives seeds for Three Muses, including how she had ideas based on a real-life story from the Holocaust and the Greek view of three muses At about 14:10, Pete and Martha lay out some of the book's exposition  At about 15:30, Martha responds to Pete wondering about how the protagonist John was roused by a dance from Katya/Katherine At about 16:45, Martha reflects on Katya's problematic and ongoing collaboration and personal relationship with the director Boris At about 20:05, Pete lays out some of Katya's traumas At about 20:50, Martha talks about Janko/John's horrific childhood and the loss of his family in Mainz, Germany, in the Holocaust-Martha describes how her cousin Alan Boucher's memoir informed some parts of the book At about 22:25, Martha speaks about the guilt-inducing “Sophie's Choice” that afflicts and saves John/Janko's; she expounds upon his survivor's guilt At about 24:30, Pete and Martha compare Janko's story with that of Elie Wiesel and the ways in which iit was so gutting to see people killed in the camps so close to Liberation  At about 26:30, The two discuss the idea of reinvention as seen through John in the book, and Martha expands on “unlikely heroes” who helped John to survive At about 29:20, Martha discusses Barney and Selma Katz, who “adopt” John, and she talks about John's own psychoanalysis and psychologist training At about 31:05, The two discuss themes in the book of memorializing, living “in the present tense,” and how memory guides the characters' actions At about 33:05, Pete traces John and Katya's connections, and Martha debates how and if the “innate” connections are there At about 36:00, Pete asks Martha about any responsibilities/urgency to get Holocaust stories on the page  At about 37:45, Martha speaks of art and its “incredibl[e] importan[ce]” and the power of fiction At about 38:55, Martha shouts out Forgottenness by Tanja Maljartschuk as an example of the power of memory At about 39:55, Martha responds to Pete's question about the emotional toll of writing her book    You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.    I am very excited that starting in February with Episode 220, I will have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review-I'm looking forward to the partnership!    Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl     Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!    NEW MERCH! You can browse and buy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChillsatWillPodcast    This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.     Please tune in for Episode 221 with Andrew Leland, a writer, audio producer, editor, and teacher. His first book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, about the world of blindness (and figuring out his place in it), was published in July 2023 by Penguin Press, to great acclaim and receiving many awards.    The episode will air on January 31.

Find all interviews at https://www.youtube.com/@fierceconversationswithtoby Transcripts available at https://tobydorr.com/podcast-schedule/ In this episode, Brittany Means discusses her new memoir, Hell If We Don't Change Our Ways. About Brittany Means: Brittany Means is a writer and editor living in Albuquerque, NM. A graduate of Iowa's MFA Nonfiction Writing Program, Means has worked with Inara Verzemnieks and Kiese Laymon. She has received several awards for her work, including the Magdalena Award, the Herodotus Award, and the Grace Paley Fellowship at Under the Volcano. Notes from Toby:  I have long been a fan of Jeannette Walls. Her memoir Glass Castle gave me permission to tell my own crazy story. Today, I'm lucky enough to live within an hour's drive of Jeannette and so I've been able to connect with her at several book events. A few months ago, Jeannette posted on Facebook a photo of her with a young college student, and shared the story that many years ago Jeannette was speaking at a college when a girl came up to her for a photo and shared that she wanted to be an author also. Today, that woman, Brittany Means, just published an amazing memoir. Jeannette reached out to me and said, “Toby, I think Brittany could be one of your fierce women!” I immediately scheduled her interview. Of course, I also bought the memoir – and you should too! Another powerful life story by a talented woman author! Key Topics and Time Stamps: [6:57] What did putting your story out into the world feel like? [10:24] Who has been your most important mentor? [18:58] Brittany talks about the adjustment from being homeless to being a college student. Links:  If you want to be empowered in your life, listen to Brittany! https://www.brittanymeans.com https://www.brittanymeans.com/book https://www.instagram.com/brittanymeansit/ Support Fierce Conversations with Toby: Toby Dorr: https://www.patreon.com/fierceconversations https://linktr.ee/fierceconversations https://linktr.ee/tobydorrbooks https://www.youtube.com/@fierceconversationswithtoby https://www.instagram.com/tobydorr/ https://www.facebook.com/TobyDorrAuthor Credits: Created by Toby Dorr. Produced by Number Three Productions, a division of GP Publishing. Theme song: Lisa Plasse: Composer, arranger, and flutist Caroline Parody: Piano Tony Ventura: Bass For more information on these fabulous musicians, please go to https://tobydorr.com/theme-song/   

*patron-only bonus episode teaser*We're back with friend of The Stacks, Kiese Laymon, with audio from the second New York live show on our national tour. Kiese discusses writing about real people in his life, and reveals what he would change about his memoir Heavy if he could revise it. Plus, we talk about first kisses, Beyonce, and Taylor Swift.*This episode is exclusive to members of The Stacks Pack on Patreon. To join this community, get inside access to the show, and listen now, click the link below.JOIN THE STACKS PACK TO LISTENYou can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' website:https://thestackspodcast.com/2023/12/08/tsu-28-nyc-tour-2Connect with Kiese: Instagram | WebsiteConnect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | SubscribeSUPPORT THE STACKSJoin The Stacks Pack on PatreonPurchasing books through Bookshop.org or Amazon earns The Stacks a small commission.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this special episode, we tune in from Vital Village Networks' 10th annual National Community Leadership Summit, where hundreds of grassroots community leaders gathered in Boston in October. Hear opening remarks from Founding Director, Dr. Renee Boynton-Jarrett, followed by an intimate conversation with best-selling author and educator Kiese Laymon and Ronda Alexander, Vital Village's Director of Partnerships. Delving into the summit theme, Writing Our Story, Kiese reflects on his personal journey growing up in Jackson, Mississippi with radical honesty and vulnerability, sharing insights on racism, family, dignity, and the power of sitting in grief. He explores what joy, healing, and justice look like and the importance of writing, telling, and owning our own narratives. Featured guest:Kiese Laymon, Bestselling Author, Social Critic, and EssayistHost: Ronda Alexander, Director of Operations, NOW at Vital Village NetworksAdditional Resources:Find out more about Kiese Laymon and his work: https://www.lyceumagency.com/speakers/kiese-laymon/ Learn more about 2023 Summit takeaways and coalition building reflections in our latest article by Gabby Cockerham: https://www.networksofopportunity.org/post/coalition-building-key-takeaways-from-the-2023-national-community-leadership-summit Produced by: Networks of Opportunity for Child WellbeingRecorded by: MediaBossMusic: Want U W/ Me (Instrumental Mix), by Akira Sora, From the Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0Edited By: Resonate RecordingsPlease note, this episode does contain some adult language.

Priscilla Gilman joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about parentification and hypervigilance in children, toggling between the child character and adult narrator, confronting and capturing the complexity of parents on the page, negotiating our inner critic, and her new memoir The Critic's Daughter.     Also in this episode: -writing about close family members -good writing is rewriting -negotiating feedback and reviews   Books mentioned in this episode: Faith, Sex, Mystery by Richard Gilman Heavy by Kiese Laymon The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Blue Nights by Joan Didion The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith   Priscilla Gilman is the author of two memoirs, The Anti-Romantic Child (Harper, 2011) and The Critic's Daughter(Norton, 2023) and a former professor of English literature at Yale University and Vassar College. The Anti-Romantic Child received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist, was selected as one the Best Books of 2011 by the Leonard Lopate Show and The Chicago Tribune, and was one of five nominees for a Books for a Better Life Award for Best First Book. Nick Hornby called The Critic's Daughter “beautiful: honest, raw, careful, soulful, brave and incredibly readable," and Kiese Laymon declared: “The Critic's Daughter is an exquisite and rare example of how the memoir needs as much inventiveness in scope and form as our most lush fiction and poetry…I've read few books in my life as skillfully executed and willfully conceived as The Critic's Daughter.” Gilman's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Slate, REAL SIMPLE, the Washington Post, O, the Oprah Magazine, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City.   Connect with Priscilla: Website: www.priscillagilman.com X: www.twitter.com/priscillagilman Facebook: www.facebook.com/priscillagilmanauthor Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/priscilla.gilman/   – Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer's Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' Eludia Award. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.   More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/ More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/ Connect with Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo: Canva Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

This week's guests are the coeditors (and contributors to) Letters to a Writer of Color. Listen in to hear the profound insights and inspirational origin story that led to Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro's collaboration on their powerful anthology. Contributors to this collection include Kiese Laymon, Myriam Gurba, Madeleine Thien, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, and others. Our conversation this week circles how writers of color write and talk about and translate their experiences, the ways writers can get hemmed in and how they refuse to be hemmed in, and also the power of commonalities across experiences, even when those experiences are so varied. Not to be missed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*patron-only bonus episode teaser*This Unabridged is a conversation with author and friend of The Stacks Kiese Laymon from our early show in New York City. We hear from Kiese about how he knows when his work is ready for an audience, and get intel on his forthcoming book. We also get into sports, hot topics, and the unmatched confidence of New Yorkers.*This episode is exclusive to members of The Stacks Pack on Patreon. To join this community, get inside access to the show, and listen now, click the link below.JOIN THE STACKS PACK TO LISTENYou can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' website:https://thestackspodcast.com/2023/11/24/tsu-27-nyc-tour-1Connect with Kiese: Instagram | WebsiteConnect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | SubscribeSUPPORT THE STACKSJoin The Stacks Pack on PatreonPurchasing books through Bookshop.org or Amazon earns The Stacks a small commission.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Writer and editor Zeke Caligiuri joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion, a new collection of essays on class he co-edited along with eleven other incarcerated writers. The volume's contributors include Eula Biss, Kao Kalia Yang, Lacy M. Johnson, Valeria Luisielli, Kiese Laymon, and many others. Caligiuri, who worked on the book while in Minnesota correctional facilities and is now free, discusses the challenges of creativity and the literary life in prison settings, as well as how the book came to be. He also reflects on the idea that “the history of class hasn't always been written by the powerful, but they have always been its editors,” as he writes in a foreword, which he reads from during the episode. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Zeke Caligiuri American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion (ed.) This is Where I Am Prison Noir (ed. Joyce Carol Oates) The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting a Writer's Life in Prison (ed. Caits Meissner) How a Collective of Incarcerated Writers Published an Anthology From Prison - Electric Literature “Before I Was Anything” (poem) Literary Hub Others: Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop What Incarcerated Writers Want the Literary Community to Understand: Caits Meissner on Why "Prison Writer" Is a Limiting Label (featuring Zeke Caligiuri, Literary Hub, Sept. 11, 2019) C. Fausto Cabrera Kiese Laymon Valeria Luiselli Steve Almond Jen Bowen Kristin Collier  Sarith Peou Toni Morrison Eula Biss Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Approaching Traumatic Material with Complexity and Compassion featuring Brittany Means Brittany Means joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up vagrant, writing about child sexual abuse, how she started with the scenes that haunted her, depicting traumatic material with complexity and compassion, leaning into her narrative voice, when she felt like a writer with a capital “W”, and her new memoir Hell If We Don't Change Our Ways.  Also in this episode: -reconnecting with your body when writing traumatic material -asking yourself really hard questions -why our stories matter Memoirs mentioned in this episode: Darkroom by Jill Christman Heavy by Kiese Laymon In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado   Brittany Means is a Chicana writer and editor living in Albuquerque, NM. A graduate of Iowa's MFA Nonfiction Writing Program, Means has worked with Inara Verzemnieks and Kiese Laymon. She has received several awards for her work, including the Magdalena Award, Geneva Fellowship, and Grace Paley Fellowship at Under the Volcano.   Connect with Brittany Means: Website: www.brittanymeans.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BrittanyMeansIt/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/BrittanyMeansIt/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/BrittanyMeansIt/ Get Brittany's book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/hell-if-we-don-t-change-our-ways-a-memoir-brittany-means/19712130?ean=9798985282894   – Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer's Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' Eludia Award. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.   More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/ More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/ Connect with Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo: Canva Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Notes and Links to David Mura's Work      For Episode 206, Pete welcomes David Mura, and the two discuss, among other topics, his early reading and writing and the ways in which his parents' imprisonment as Japanese-Americans affected their and his views of being an American, his more expansive reading as he matured that changed world views, the prescience and fullness and profundity of James Baldwin's writing, ideas of shame/guilt and white supremacy, the stories told about ”great” white men, and blind spots-unintentional and intentional-that have led to racism in policing, schooling, medical care, and so many other parts of American life.        David Mura's memoirs, poems, essays, plays and performances have won wide critical praise and numerous awards. Their topics range from contemporary Japan to the legacy of the internment camps and the history of Japanese Americans to critical explorations of an increasingly diverse America. He gives presentations at educational institutions, businesses and other organizations throughout the country.     David's Website   David's Wikipedia Page   Buy The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself   Review for The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself from The Star Tribune At about 1:45, David discusses the ways in which Japanese-American concentration camps, language and ethnicity shaped his reading and family's life   At about 6:30, David discusses the ways in which he now looks back at work that was trumpeted as about “great (white) Americans” that he read in the past, including a sharper view of Abraham Lincoln   At about 11:00, David talks about the ways in which white Americans have failed to learn from past wrongdoing   At about 13:00, David expands upon a meaningful and emblematic meeting between James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Robert F. Kennedy, and others   At about 14:55, David describes the ways in which James Baldwin was prophetic in his depiction of the moral/spiritual emptiness of white racism   At about 16:55, David responds to Pete's question about texts and quotes and passages and writers that thrilled and challenged him-he quotes (verbatim!) from an excerpt of a profound text from Baldwin-"The Devil Finds Work"   At about 21:45, David recounts racist and transformative experiences that shaped James Baldwin's world view   At about 24:35, David reflects on ideas of forgiveness and how Baldwin's views on Black and white people and myths and stories were shaped by experiences in New Jersey, the American South, and elsewhere   At about 28:25, Pete details a memorable example of hypocrisy involving Tom Tancredo and past guest Gustavo Arellano   At about 29:30, Pete asks David to further explain shame/guilt as it mentioned with regards to white racism in David's book   At about 30:35, David reads a telling passage from his book related to the above question, and he references Tom Cotton and Ron DeSantis as two of many examples of denial of racism and white backlash   At about 33:15, David continues talking about shame and guilt and likens reactions to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' work  At about 37:00, David deals with the hypocrisy and white supremacy shown by Ron DeSantis' takedown of AP African-American history and ideas of white validation    At about 40:00, Pete wonders if David sees any improvements and hope coming with younger generations and a more inclusive story; he brings up the ways in which Ruby Bridges' story is emblematic of conservative, Moms for Liberty backlash   At about 44:45, The two discuss an infamous photo featuring Jerry Jones, and Pete cites a stunning story from the book involving Kiese Laymon and a racist incident with a future politician    At about 47:30, David provides historical background on “blackness” and “whiteness” and the ways in which the white elite has promoted these ideas to working-class whites   At about 49:40, Pete talks about ideas of reading and empathy, and he asks David about burdens and learning and working against ignorance    At about 52:30, David tells a story of learning about different perspectives from Alexs Pate and from Black artists “laughing with pain” from DWB (Driving While Black) experiences     At about 55:20, David relates a telling anecdote related to the movie and novelization of Amistad and the ways in which these two works of art showed disparate understandings of race and racism    At about 1:00:30, David describes the potency of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart   At about 1:03:15, Pete cites a moving specific and universal story from Douglas Kearney in the book, and David homes in on ideas of “what American means” to students of color in the Minneapolis area and connections to Black men killed by police and systemic racism   At about 1:09:40, David cites medical racism and ignorant and regressive ideas cited in a 2016 study of white medical students; he cites connections    At about 1:12:05, Pete and David wonder about the NRA's lack of action in support of the Black Panthers and Philando Castile    At about 1:13:40, Moon Palace, Birchwood Books, and Magers & Quinn as good places to buy his book   You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.    Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl     Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!    NEW MERCH! You can browse and buy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChillsatWillPodcast    This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.    Please tune in for Episode 207 with Ursula Villarreal-Moura, the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, Gold Line Press fiction contest winner; writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015    The episode will air on October 3.

Welcome to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions; this week on the show, we're joined by Jarvis Taveniere of Woods. You know his long running Woods band with Jeremy Earl of course—and Woodsist, their record label and Woodsist Festival, which returns September 23-24 upstate with Kevin Morby, Avey Tare, Cochemea, Tapers Choice, Ana Saint Louis, Natural Information Society, Kurt Vile, Scientist, DJ Aquarium Drunkard—that's our own Justin Gage—plus many more. The band also just released a glowing new album, Perennial, which finds the band in a gentle, rambling mode.  Jarvis and host Jason P. Woodbury, alongside Willian Tyler and Sadie Sartini Garner, were all members of a book club through much of the pandemic, reading selections of authors like JG Ballard, Kiese Laymon, Eve Babitz and others. LIVE TRANSMISSIONS: On September 30th, we're hosting a live taping of Transmissions at Manly P. Hall's Philosophical Research Society with Matt Marble, discussing his fantastic book about Arthur Russell, Buddhist Bubblegum. Get more info here. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. Next week on the show, Coleen joins us to discuss her tremendous new album.

Kiese Laymon & Imbolo Mbue discuss the power of using literature and storytelling to highlight the effects of environmental racism.

Shownotes:Chris and Eddie are joined by Kiese Laymon, a black southern writer, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He is the author of the best-selling memoir “Heavy,” a deeply honest reflection on his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. The winner of multiple awards, including the Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, Laymon's writing in “Heavy” and other works exhibits a profound usage of prose and ability to enter into his memories to bring forward a voice that speaks to the experiences of Mississippi, specifically of black Mississippians.Laymon speaks about the important role his grandmother plays in his life, the way in which the influences of our upbringing remain a part of us no matter what changes may come, and the incredible ability of art to unleash heavy truths from things we keep secret. This conversation, but more specifically Laymon's art, speaks directly to the complexities of Mississippi in a way that helps listeners seek more understanding not just of one state, but an entire nation. Resources:Follow Kiese Laymon on the web:https://www.kieselaymon.com Check out Kiese Laymon's memoir Heavy here:https://www.kieselaymon.com/heavy Follow Kiese on social media:https://twitter.com/KieseLaymonhttps://www.instagram.com/kieselaymon/

On this episode of Louder Than A Riot, something a little different: It's part meditation, part conversation — between host Rodney Carmichael and writers Kiese Laymon and Jamilah Lemieux — about beats, rhymes and life. For Rodney, interrogating misogynoir in hip-hop means confronting some hard questions — as a man, and especially as a father. As Rodney thinks about raising the next generation without replicating his mistakes, he's looking more closely at how hip-hop shaped his definition of masculinity.

For Louder host Rodney Carmichael, interrogating misogynoir in hip-hop means confronting some hard questions — as a man, and especially as a father. As Rodney thinks about raising the next generation without replicating his mistakes, he's looking more closely at how hip-hop shaped his definition of masculinity. On this episode, something a little different: part meditation, part conversation — between Rodney and writers Kiese Laymon and Jamilah Lemieux — about beats, rhymes and life.

“I don't know what I was thinking but I just kept feeling like the waves of shame because of the shame I made them feel.”Today's episode featured Kiese Laymon. You can find out more about him and his books at kieselaymon.com.Producer: Whit Missildine Episode Summary: Growing up in a household full of both love and violence in Mississippi, Kiese Laymon struggles with generational trauma, career success, and addiction before finally facing the silences of his past. Social Media:Instagram: @actuallyhappeningThis Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/201783687561039/ Website: www.thisisactuallyhappening.com Content/Trigger Warnings: domestic violence, physical abuse, assault, explicit languageWondery Plus: All episodes of the show prior to episode #130 are now part of the Wondery Plus premium service. To access the full catalog of episodes, and get all episodes ad free, sign up for Wondery Plus at https://wondery.com/plusSupport the Show: Support The Show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/happening Shop at the Store: The This Is Actually Happening online store is now officially open. Follow this link: https://www.thisisactuallyhappening.com/shop to access branded t-shirts, posters, stickers and more from the shop. Intro Music: "Illabye" – TipperMusic Bed: “Re-entry” – Lee Rosevere ServicesIf you or someone you know is struggling with the effects of trauma or mental illness, please refer to the following resources. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN): 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)Crisis Text Line: Within the US, text HOME to 741741See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.