 | This article needs a plot summary.(July 2024) |
 First edition | |
| Author | Kiese Laymon |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | Scribner |
Publication date | October 16, 2018 |
| Publication place | United States |
Heavy: An American Memoir is a memoir by Kiese Laymon, published October 16, 2018 by Scribner. In 2019, the book won the Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction [1] [2] and Los Angeles Times Book Prize, [3] among other awards and nominations.
Heavy received rave reviews [4] from Kirkus Reviews , [5] Publishers Weekly , [6] Booklist , [7] NPR, [8] The New York Times Book Review , [9] The Atlantic , [10] Los Angeles Times , [11] The New Republic , [12] San Francisco Chronicle , [13] TIME , [14] Entertainment Weekly , [15] and Library Journal . [16] According to Book Marks, the book received "rave" reviews based on nineteen critic reviews with fourteen being "rave" and four being "positive" and one being "mixed". [17] In Books in the Media, a site that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a 
(3.56 out of 5) from the site which was based on four critic reviews. [18] [19]
In reviews, the book was called "harrowing," [15] "gorgeous," [9] "spectacular," [7] "dynamic," and "unsettling in all the best ways." [5] In her review for Booklist, Anne Bostrom said the book was "[s]o artfully crafted, miraculously personal, and continuously disarming," that it is, "at its essence, powerful writing about the power of writing." [7] Writing for the New York Times, Jennifer Szaili wrote, "This generous, searching book explores all the forces that can stop even the most buoyant hopes from ever leaving the ground.” [9] The Los Angeles Times's Nathan Deuel said, "Heavy is one of the most important and intense books of the year because of the unyielding, profoundly original and utterly heartbreaking way it addresses and undermines expectations for what exactly it’s like to possess and make use of a male black body in America." [11]
The Guardian 's Sukhdev Sandhu provided a mixed review, saying "he's best when writing about his own feelings." [20] Sandhu continued, "Laymon's prose can be erratic, lurching between showy 'y'alls' and academese such as 'modes of memory'. There are many sententious and underdeveloped proclamations." Near the end of the book, Sandhu noted that Laymon "sounds merely pompous." [20] Sandhu also found the way the book addressed Laymon's mother using the second-person pronoun "you" to be "[s]trangest of all" the language used in the book, saying, "It comes across as a device, as a contrivance. It promises an intimacy that he never delivers on." [20]
Heavy was named one of the best nonfiction of 2018 by Kirkus Reviews, [5] The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, [21] NPR, [22] Buzzfeed, [23] and Boston Public Library . [24] Library Journal named it one of the best memoirs of the year. [25] Entertainment Weekly [26] and Southern Living [27] included it in their overall list of the best books of the year, and The Chicago Public Library placed it in the top ten books of the year. [28] The New York Times included it in their list of the best 50 memoirs of the past 50 years. [29]
| Year | Award/Honor | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Booklist Editors' Choice for Adult Books | Selection | [30] |
| Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction | Finalist | [5] | |
| Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir & Autobiography | Nominee | [31] | |
| 2019 | Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction | Winner | [1] [2] |
| Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Nonfiction | Winner | [32] | |
| Chautauqua Prize | Shortlist | [33] | |
| Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Nonfiction | Nominee | [34] | |
| Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose | Winner | [3] | |
| Reference and User Services Association's Notable Books of the Year | Selection | [35] |
Leslie Sierra Jamison is an American novelist and essayist. She is the author of the 2010 novel The Gin Closet and the 2014 essay collection The Empathy Exams. Jamison also directs the nonfiction concentration in writing at Columbia University School of the Arts.
The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction were established in 2012 to recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year. They are named in honor of nineteenth-century American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in recognition of his deep belief in the power of books and learning to change the world.
Candace Groth Fleming is an American writer of children's books, both fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of more than twenty books for children and young adults, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-honored The Family Romanov and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award-winning biography, The Lincolns, among others.
Kiese Laymon is an American writer. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. He is the author of three full-length books: a novel, Long Division (2013), and two memoirs, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (2013) and the award-winning Heavy: An American Memoir (2018). Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.
Agate Publishing is an independent small press book publisher based in Evanston, Illinois. The company, incorporated in 2002 with its first book published in 2003, was founded by current president Doug Seibold. At its inception, Agate was synonymous with its Bolden imprint, which published exclusively African-American literature, an interest of Seibold's and a product of his time working as executive editor for the defunct African-American publisher Noble Press.
Brandy Colbert is an American author of young adult fiction and nonfiction.
Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets is a 2017 collection of poems for children's by Kwame Alexander with co-authors Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth and illustrated by Ekua Holmes. The book won the 2018 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. Each of the 20 poems is written in tribute to and in the style of a well known poet.
The Anthropocene Reviewed is the shared name for a podcast and 2021 nonfiction book by John Green. The podcast started in January 2018, with each episode featuring Green reviewing "different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale". The name comes from the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch that includes significant human impact on the environment. Episodes typically contain Green reviewing two topics, accompanied by stories on how they have affected his life. These topics included intangible concepts like humanity's capacity for wonder, artificial products like Diet Dr. Pepper, natural species that have had their fates altered by human influence like the Canada goose, and phenomena that primarily influence humanity such as Halley's Comet.
Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction is a graphic memoir by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, published October 9, 2018 by Graphix. The book tells the story of Krosoczka's childhood living with his grandparents while his mother lived with a substance use disorder.
In the Dream House is a memoir by Carmen Maria Machado. It was published on November 5, 2019, by Graywolf Press.
Tracey Baptiste is a children's horror author from the Caribbean who uses folk stories in her novels.
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning is a 2020 autobiographical book of essays written by the Korean American author Cathy Park Hong. It was published by Penguin Random House in the United States and Profile Books in the United Kingdom and is composed of seven essays about growing up as an Asian-American in a Western capitalist society, more specifically in the United States of America. This book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography in 2020.
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out is a 2014 book written by American author Susan Kuklin. For the book, Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults, describing their sense of identity before, during, and after transitioning.
Shout: The True Story of a Survivor Who Refused to be Silenced is a poetic memoir by Laurie Halse Anderson, published March 12, 2019 by Viking Books. The book is a New York Times best seller.
All Boys Aren't Blue is a young adult non-fiction "memoir-manifesto" by journalist and activist George M. Johnson, published April 28, 2020, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man is a nonfiction book by Thomas Page McBee, published August 14, 2018, by Scribner.
When Stars Are Scattered is a nonfiction young adult graphic novel written by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, illustrated by Victoria Jamieson and Iman Geddy, and published April 14, 2020, by Dial Books.
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre is a picture book written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Floyd Cooper. Published on February 2, 2021, by Carolrhoda, it tells the history behind the Tulsa race massacre in verse.
Everything Sad Is Untrue: is a young adult/middle grade autobiographical novel by Daniel Nayeri, published August 25, 2020 by Levine Querido. In 2021, the book won the Michael L. Printz Award, Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature, and Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature.
Apple (Skin to the Core) is a poetic memoir for young adults, written by Eric Gansworth and published October 6, 2020 by Levine Querido. In this book, Gansworth talks about his life as an Onondaga individual, living amongst Tuscaroras, and the impact of residential schooling. As he covers these topics, he discusses common slurs against Indigenous Americans, including the term "apple," which refers to someone who is "red on the outside, white on the inside," that is, who looks Indigenous but acts white.