When Kiese Laymon ’98 looks back on his Oberlin years, he does not mince words. “Being there, at a place that valued young Black artists, literally saved my life,” says the author and professor, who was named a MacArthur Fellow in fall 2022. At Oberlin, Laymon immersed himself among creators who were making lively, inspiring art. He was also inspired by the discipline he saw in so many others around him there. “I remember in my first year, I was going for a run at 7 a.m. and I see this young kid—he looked 14—was coming out of his dorm room with a cello that was bigger than him,” he recalls. “And I asked him what he was doing up this early. He said, ‘Practice,’ and I immediately thought Wow, the game has changed here. This is serious stuff.” After earning a BA in English at Oberlin, then an MFA at Indiana University, he went on to write the novel "Long Division" and the essay collection "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America." The story of time-traveling Mississippi teens...