TITLE: Congratulating Kiese Laymon of Rice University on receiving a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship.

SUMMARY: Congratulating Kiese Laymon of Rice University on receiving a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship.

FULL TEXT:
WHEREAS, Rice University professor Kiese Laymon has been named the recipient of a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship; and WHEREAS, Widely known as "genius grants," the MacArthur Fellowships acknowledge exceptional originality in creative endeavors; each award carries an $800,000 stipend to be used however the recipient wishes; the MacArthur Foundation lauded Mr. Laymon's profound honesty in bearing witness to the myriad forms of violence that mark the Black experience; and WHEREAS, Kiese Laymon is the acclaimed author of the 2018 bestseller Heavy: An American Memoir, as well as the novel Long Division and the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America;his writing has also appeared in the New York Times,the Washington Post,and Vanity Fair,among other publications; and WHEREAS, In January 2022, Mr. Laymon joined the faculty at Rice as the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of Creative Writing and English; he previously taught at Vassar College and the University of Mississippi; a Mississippi native, he founded the Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative at Jackson State University to inspire youth and their parents to read, write, and share their life stories; and WHEREAS, Mr. Laymon holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master of fine arts degree from Indiana University, and he completed a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard University; over the years, his work has garnered numerous accolades; Heavy won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and it was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by the New York Times and one of the 25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance by Time magazine; in addition, the audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year; Long Division received an NAACP Image Award; and WHEREAS, Through his literary works and his commitment to creative writing education, Kiese Laymon has enriched the lives of innumerable people, causing them to reflect more deeply on the power of personal expression, and he is truly deserving of this prestigious honor; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 88th Texas Legislature hereby congratulate Kiese Laymon on receiving a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship and extend to him sincere best wishes for continued success; and, be it further RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be prepared for Mr. Laymon as an expression of high regard by the Texas House of Representatives.