The Marygrove Conservancy is pleased to announce that the thirty-sixth guest in the Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series (CAALS) is the prolific novelist Percival Everett. He will deliver the Bauder Lecture at 8 pm on April 25, 2025.
The winner of over a dozen major awards, Everett is the author of 24 novels, including Erasure, the basis for the award-winning film American Fiction. His most recent novel, James, a New York Times best-seller, reinterprets Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the runaway slave Jim. The Chicago Tribune calls Everett "our current Great American Novelist” and regards James as "a masterpiece that will help redefine one of the classics of American literature, while also being a major achievement on its own.” Publishers Weekly says that in Erasure Everett’s “talent is multifaceted, sparked by a satiric brilliance that could place him alongside Wright and Ellison as he skewers the conventions of racial and political correctness.” Everett is also praised for his short fiction and poetry. Among his recent works are Dr. No, which received the 2023 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award; The Trees, a finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award; and Telephone, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, James is shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize and is on the long list for the National Book Award for fiction.