b. brian foster

Brilliant and uncompromising, piercing and funny, Kiese Laymon’s How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (Scribner) is essential reading. The new edition of the award-winning writer’s first work of nonfiction (featuring six new essays) looks inward, drawing heavily on the author and his family’s experiences, while simultaneously examining the world — Mississippi, the South, the United States — that has shaped their lives. With subjects that range from an interview with his mother to reflections on Ole Miss football, OutKast, and the labor of Black women, these 13 insightful essays highlight Laymon’s profound love of language and his artful rendering of experience, trumpeting why he is “simply one of the most talented writers in America” (New York magazine) and a “star in the…