When Kiese Laymon got a message from his editor Tuesday directing him to the New York Times, the author and Rice University professor said he was “beyond shocked” to find his “Heavy: An American Memoir” at No. 60 of the publication’s “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.”
“I found out with everyone else,” said Laymon, the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of Creative Writing and English. “Then to see it next to ‘Middlesex’ and my friend Hua Hsu’s book ‘Stay True’ and Morrison’s ‘Mercy’ was just wild.”