Long Division(85)

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


I want to thank my father and mother for patience and life. I’m sorry I was so bad for so long. I just want you to be proud.

Thanks to my Aunt Sue, Aunt Linda, Nichole, and Mr. and Ms. Simmons for sharing their God, their healing voices, and their homes with me when I was homeless. Thanks to my little brother, Tommy, and my little sister, Jeanne, for the short time we’ve shared.

Thanks to Amie, Assefash, Kleaver, Danielle P., Sharon, Rachel, Tanay, Abby, Lauren, Catherine, Robyn, Amielle, Kendall, Leona, Ocasio, Akil, Evan, Cordelia, John, Nate, Rosa, Emma C., Brianna, Amanda, Adam, Safy, Parker, my agents David and Robert, and she who has next, “Nephew Jessie,” for reading or listening to early drafts of this book and believing when there was little to believe in. Thanks to Kara for embracing this book like I was family. Thank you for opening your heart to these characters and me at a time when we were so afraid and most in need of magic, music, and time.

Thanks to Raymon for showing a draft to his little brother and needing to teach it to his students.

Thank you to Amitava, Imani, Paul, Michael, and Hua for real talk and modeling innovative literary excellence up close. To Leslie, Peter, Paul, Judy, and David for mentoring and advising me not to sell out.

Thank you, Millsaps College, for a peculiar kind of freedom. Thank you, Jackson State University, for always being home. Thank you, Oberlin College, for a second chance at life and art. Thanks to the Indiana University MFA program for time to learn from some great ones.

Thanks to Lerthon, David, Terry, Henry, Roy, Brandon, Kareem, Stacey, Baraka, Madra, Hasinati, Leighton, Shonda, Robyn, and Shirley for making thousands of Mississippi memories and keeping me alive.

To Andrew, Lila, Bob, and Joanna for welcoming me, and Cappy for keeping Vassar College’s doors open to brilliance.

To Carlos, Luis, Prescott, Kisha, Torrie, Mona, and the one and only O.G. Raymon “Gunn” Murph for the kind of service, brotherhood, sisterhood, and love that saves lives.

To Bama, Magtoto, Adam, Paulsak and the rest of that first Writing the Underground class I taught at Vassar for holding me accountable to ride-or-die integrity.

Thanks to Morrison, Baldwin, Salinger, Butler, Jesmyn Ward, Natasha Trethewey, Rich Santiago, Ava DuVernay, Outkast, Big K.R.I.T., Ani, Jigga, Kanye, Joni, Maxwell, Scarface, 2pac, Spike Lee, Tyler, Crooked Lettaz, Frank Ocean, dream, Kendrick, Halona King, Brandon Green, Noel Didla, Adisa Ajamu, Marlon Peterson, Mychal Denzel Smith, Darnell Moore, and Killer Mike.

Thanks to Ron, Luke, Mia, Andy, Kim, and Lisa for your willingness to fight and collaborate. Ron, you took a chance on me when you didn’t have to. I will never forget your courage.

I want to also thank 2010–2011 Senior Composition for creating and sustaining a rigorous, emotionally dense, innovative writing community when I was really unhealthy and ready to quit.

Thanks to Doug Seibold and the Agate Bolden crew for trust and putting innovative and soulful literature first.

Thanks are not enough to Professor Eve Dunbar for an intellectually demanding friendship while this book was being revised, for slapping blax and posing two questions about black regional literature that changed the narrative’s trajectory and my writing life forever. Thank you so much for your care.

Grandma, thank you for teaching me how to pray, listen, laugh, and fight to the end. Blues.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Kiese Laymon is a black Southern writer, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He graduated from Oberlin College and earned his MFA from Indiana University. A contributing editor at Gawker.com, he has written for numerous publications, including Esquire and ESPN.com. He is an associate professor of English and Africana studies at Vassar College. His collection of essays, How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, will be published by Agate Bolden in August 2013.