Percival Everett
Percival Everett (born December 22, 1956)[1] is an American writer[2] and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.
Percival Everett | |
|---|---|
Everett in 2022 | |
| Born | December 22, 1956 Fort Gordon, Georgia, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist, story writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Brown University |
| Period | Contemporary |
| Notable works | Erasure (2001); I Am Not Sidney Poitier (2009); The Trees (2021) |
| Notable awards | Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction, 2023 |
He is best known for his novels Erasure (2001), I Am Not Sidney Poitier (2009), and The Trees (2021), which was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.
Erasure was adapted as the film American Fiction (2023), written and directed by Cord Jefferson, starring Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown, and Leslie Uggams.
Personal life and education edit
Percival L. Everett, named after his father, was born in Fort Gordon, Georgia, where his father, Percival Leonard Everett, was a sergeant in the US Army. His mother was Dorothy (née Stinson) Everett. When the younger Everett was still an infant, the family moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where the boy lived through high school. He was the oldest of several children.[3] His father became a dentist and his parents continued to live in South Carolina. The younger Everett eventually moved to the American West.[3]
Everett earned a bachelors in philosophy from the University of Miami.[4] He studied a broad variety of topics including biochemistry and mathematical logic.[5]
He earned a M.A. in fiction from Brown University in 1982.[6]
He now lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife, the novelist Danzy Senna.[7][8]
Literary career edit
While completing his M.A. degree, Everett wrote his first novel, Suder (1983). His lead character was Craig Suder, a Seattle Mariners third baseman in a major league slump, both on and off the field.[9] Everett's second novel, Walk Me to the Distance (1985), features veteran David Larson after his return from Vietnam. Larson becomes involved in a search for the developmentally disabled son of a sheep rancher in Slut's Whole, Wyoming. The novel was later adapted, with an altered plot, as an ABC-TV movie entitled Follow Your Heart.[9][10]
Cutting Lisa (1986; re-issued 2000) begins with John Livesey meeting a man who has performed a Caesarean section. This prompts the protagonist to evaluate his relationships.[11]
In 1987, Everett published The Weather and Women Treat Me Fair: Stories, a collection of short stories set mostly in the contemporary western United States.
In 1990, Everett published two books re-fashioning Greek myths: Zulus, which combines the grotesque and the apocalypse; and For Her Dark Skin, a new version of Medea by the Greek playwright Euripides.[9]
Switching genres, Everett next wrote a children's book, The One That Got Away (1992). This illustrated book for young readers follows three cowboys as they attempt to corral "ones", the mischievous numerals.[12]
Returning to novels, Everett published his first book-length western, God's Country, in 1994. In this novel, Curt Marder and his black tracker Bubba search "God's country" for Marder's wife, who has been kidnapped by bandits. Marder is not sure whether he wants to find her. The book is a parody of westerns and the politics of race and gender. It includes a cross-dressing George Armstrong Custer.[9]
In 1996, Everett published two books: Watershed has a contemporary western setting, in which the loner hydrologist Robert Hawkes meets a Native American "small person", who helps him come to terms with the inter-relation of people. That year, Everett also published his second collection of stories, Big Picture.[9]
In Frenzy (1997), Everett returned to Greek mythology. Vlepo, Dionysos's assistant, is forced to undergo a "frenzy" of odd activities, including becoming lice and bedroom curtains at different times during the story, which he narrates. These events occur so that he can explain these experiences to Dionysos, the demi-god.[9]
Glyph (1999) is the story within a story of Ralph, a baby who chooses not to speak but has extraordinary muscle control and an IQ nearing 500. He writes notes to his mother on a variety of literary topics based on books she supplies. Ralph is kidnapped several times by parties trying to exploit his special skills. His odyssey (as "written" by four-year-old Ralph) teaches him more about love than intellect.[13]
Grand Canyon, Inc. (2001) is Everett's first novella. In it, Rhino Tanner attempts to tame Mother Nature with a commercialization of the Grand Canyon.
In 2001 Everett also published his satirical novel Erasure, in which he portrays how the publishing industry pigeon-holes African-American writers. The novel, a metafictional piece, revolves around the main character's decision to write an outrageous novella, based among the urban poor and dissolute, entitled My Pafology. The writer renames it as Fuck, wanting to push the edge of acceptability and influenced by what he calls ghetto fiction, such as Richard Wright's Native Son and Sapphire's novel Push.[14]
A History of the African-American People (proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett and James Kincaid (2004), is an epistolary novel that chronicles the characters Percival Everett and James Kincaid as they work with US Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) (occasionally) and his aide's crazy assistant, Barton Wilkes. The latter orders the authors around even as he stalks them.[15]
Also in 2004, Everett released American Desert and Damned If I Do: Stories, another collection of short stories. In American Desert, Ted Street plans to drown himself in the ocean but is killed in a traffic accident on the way there. Three days later, Street suddenly sits up in his casket at the funeral, although his head is severed and he lacks a beating heart. Throughout the rest of the novel, Street undergoes an odyssey of self-discovery about what being alive really means, exploring religion, revelation, faith, zealotry, love, family, media sensationalism, and death.[16]
Wounded: A Novel (2005) tells the story of John Hunt, a horse trainer confronted with hate crimes against a homosexual and a Native American. Hunt avoids getting mixed up in the political nature of these crimes, taking action only when he is forced to do so.[17]
Everett's 2006 collection of poetry, re:f (gesture), features one of his paintings on the front cover. His 2010 poetry book, Swimming Swimmers Swimming, was published by Red Hen Press.
The Water Cure (2007) is a novel about Ishmael Kidder, who has had a successful career as a romance novelist until the death of his daughter, when his life takes a dark turn. In a remote cabin in New Mexico, Kidder has imprisoned a man he believes to be his daughter's killer. The book's title refers to one of the torture techniques Kidder uses on the man, namely waterboarding.[18]
In 2009, Graywolf Press released I Am Not Sidney Poitier. The protagonist, with the name Not Sidney Poitier and a physical resemblance to the actor Sidney Poitier, meets challenges relating to identity and racial segregation across North America. He faces similar challenges in identity construction in relation to his adopted white father, Ted Turner.[19]
Assumption: A Novel (2011) is a triptych of stories with some characters who have been in earlier Everett stories. "Big" returns to the character of Ogden Walker, deputy sheriff of a small New Mexico town. He is on the trail of an old woman's murderer. But at the crime scene, his are the only footprints leading up to and away from her door. Something is amiss, and even his mother knows it. As other cases pile up, Ogden gives chase, pursuing flimsy leads for even flimsier reasons. His hunt leads him from the seamier side of Denver to a hippie commune as he seeks the puzzling solution.
In February 2013, Graywolf Press published Percival Everett by Virgil Russell.[20]
In 2021, Graywolf Press published The Trees, a satirical novel about historic and contemporary lynchings in Mississippi, the South and across the US. (It was published in the UK by Influx Press). It won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.[21]
Dr. No, published by Graywolf Press in 2022, won the 2023 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and was named a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics award for fiction.[22]
Everett received a 2023 Windham Campbell Prize for fiction.[23]
In 2023 the film American Fiction was released, with a screenplay adapted by Cord Jefferson from Everett's novel Erasure. Jefferson also directed the film.
Bibliography edit
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2023) |
Novels edit
- Suder (Viking Books, 1983)
- Walk Me to the Distance (Clarion Books, 1985)
- Cutting Lisa (Ticknor & Fields, 1986)
- Zulus (The Permanent Press, 1990)
- For Her Dark Skin (Owl Creek Press, 1990)
- God's Country (Faber & Faber, 1994)
- Watershed (Graywolf Press, 1996)
- The Body of Martin Aguilera (Owl Creek Press, 1997)
- Frenzy (Graywolf Press, 1997)
- Glyph (Graywolf Press, 1999)
- Grand Canyon, Inc. (Versus Press, 2001)
- Erasure (University Press of New England, 2001)
- A History of the African-American people (proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett and James Kincaid (with James Kincaid) (Akashic Books, 2004)
- American Desert (Hyperion Books, 2004)
- Wounded (Graywolf Press, 2005)
- The Water Cure (Graywolf Press, 2007)
- I Am Not Sidney Poitier: A Novel (Graywolf Press, 2009)
- Assumption (Graywolf Press, 2011)
- Percival Everett by Virgil Russell: A Novel (Graywolf Press, 2013)
- So Much Blue (Graywolf Press, 2017)
- Telephone (Graywolf Press, 2020)
- The Trees (Graywolf Press, 2021; UK: Influx Press)
- Dr. No (Graywolf Press, 2022)
- James (2024)
Short stories edit
- The Weather and Women Treat Me Fair: Stories (August House Publishers, Inc., 1987)
- Big Picture: Stories (Graywolf Press, 1996)
- Damned if I do: Stories (Graywolf Press, 2004)
- Half an Inch of Water (Graywolf Press, 2015)
Poetry edit
- re:f (gesture) (Red Hen Press, 2006), a collection of poetry
- Abstraktion und Einfühlung (with Chris Abani) (Akashic Books, 2008), a collection of poetry
- Swimming Swimmers Swimming (Red Hen Press, 2010), a collection of poetry
- There Are No Names for Red (a collaboration with Chris Abani; paintings by Percival Everett) (Red Hen Press, 2010), a collection of poetry
- Trout's Lie (Red Hen Press, 2015), a collection of poetry
- The Book of Training by Colonel Hap Thompson of Roanoke, VA, 1843: Annotated From the Library of John C. Calhoun (Red Hen Press, 2019)
Children's literature edit
- The One That Got Away (with Dirk Zimmer) (Clarion Books, 1992), a children's book
Contributions edit
- My California: Journeys by Great Writers (Angel City Press, 2004)
- Everett's introduction was added to the 2004 paperback edition of The Jefferson Bible.
As guest editor edit
- Ploughshares, Fall 2014 (vol. 40, nos 2 & 3)
Awards and honors edit
- Everett's stories have been included in the Pushcart Prize Anthology and Best American Short Stories
- 1990: New American Writing Award for Zulus
- 1996: PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for Big Picture
- 2001: Academy Award in Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters for Erasure
- 2002: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction for Erasure
- 2006: PEN Center USA Award for Fiction for Wounded[24]
- 2008: Received an honorary doctorate from the College of Santa Fe
- 2010: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction for I Am Not Sidney Poitier
- 2010: Winner of the Believer Book Award for I Am Not Sidney Poitier
- 2010: Winner of the 29th Dos Passos Prize
- 2010: Winner of the Premio Gregor von Rezzori for foreign fiction translated into Italian for Wounded (Ferito), translated by Marco Rossari[25]
- 2015: Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction
- 2015: Awarded Phi Kappa Phi Presidential Medallion from the University of Southern California
- 2016: Creative Capital Award
- 2018: PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for So Much Blue
- 2021: Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Telephone
- 2021: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction for Telephone
- 2022: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize for The Trees
- 2022: Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction for The Trees[26]
- 2022: Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Dr. No[21]
- 2023: Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for fiction
- 2023: PEN/Jean Stein Book Award
- 2023: Los Angeles Review of Books/UCR Lifetime Achievement Award
References edit
- ^ Bader, Philip (May 14, 2014). African-American Writers. Infobase Publishing. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-4381-0783-7.
- ^ Cowles, Gregory (September 18, 2005). "Fiction Chronicle". The New York Times. p. 22. Retrieved June 11, 2011.
- ^ a b Berry, Lorraine (November 8, 2022). "Meet Percival Everett: 5 novels that showcase the L.A. writer's enigmatic style". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
- ^ Sept. 16, Judith Lewis Mernit; Now, 2013 From the print edition (September 16, 2013). "What do you know?". www.hcn.org. Retrieved December 27, 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Makari, George (August 7, 2023). "A Different Language: A Conversation with Percival Everett". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved December 27, 2023.
- ^ "Percival Everett". USC Dornsife. Retrieved December 27, 2023.
- ^ Rath, A., "For Prolific Author Percival Everett, The Wilderness Is A Place Of Clarity", All Things Considered, NPR, September 20, 2015.
- ^ Lucas, Julian (September 20, 2021). "Percival Everett's Deadly Serious Comedy". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f "Percival L. Everett", The University of South Carolina-Aiken. December 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Cynthia Whitcomb website.
- ^ Cutting Lisa (Voices of the South).
- ^ Percival Everett, The One That Got Away, Emerging Writers Network, July 2009.
- ^ Lichtig, Toby, "Deconstructing daddy", A review, TLS, June 6, 2004. Review-a-Day, Powell's. Archived January 31, 2013, at archive.today
- ^ Erasure page at Graywolf Press.
- ^ Kincaid, James, and Percival Everett (2003). "A History of the African American People by Strom Thurmond (Part 2)", Transition 12(4), 68–99. Project Muse.
- ^ Terry D'Auray, American Desert review, July 28, 2004.
- ^ Alan Cheuse, "Percival Everett's 'Wounded': Winter in Wyoming", NPR, October 11, 2005.
- ^ Jim Krusoe, "Mirror Images", review of The Water Cure: A Novel, by Percival Everett. Washington Post Book World], August 31, 2007. Review-a-Day, Powell's. August 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Review: I Am Not Sidney Poitier", Quarterly Conversation.
- ^ Everett, Percival (February 5, 2013). Percival Everett by Virgil Russell: A Novel. ISBN 978-1555976347.
- ^ a b "The Booker Prize 2022 | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
- ^ Varno, David (February 1, 2023). "National Book Critics Circle Announces Finalists for Publishing Year 2022". National Book Critics Circle. Retrieved February 3, 2023.
- ^ "2023 Prize Recipients". Windham Campbell Prizes 2023. Windham Campbell Prizes. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
- ^ "Past Winners". PEN America. December 19, 2018. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
- ^ "2010 Winners". Festival degli Scrittori - Premio Gregor von Rezzori. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
- ^ "Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction announced". The Drinks Business. November 27, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
Further reading edit
- Lucas, Julian (September 27, 2021). "Dead reckoning". The Critics. A Critic at Large. The New Yorker. 97 (30): 79–84.[1]
- Maus, Derek C., Jesting in Earnest: Percival Everett and Menippean Satire (University of South Carolina Press; 2019)
- Miceli, Barbara, "Della triste impermanenza di ogni cosa: recensione di Telefono di Percival Everett", in L'Indice dei libri del mese (December 2022)
- Stewart, Anthony, Approximate Gestures: Infinite Spaces in the Fiction of Percival Everett (Louisiana State University Press; 2020)
External links edit
- one of Everett's official websites
- IdentityTheory.com interview with Everett (2003)
- Everett's USC Homepage. (Retrieved December 2, 2017.)
- "Object and Word" by Everett
- topolivres video interview with Everett (2008)
- Percival Everett by Rone Shavers Bomb
- Percival Everett on the myth of race. Video interview, Austin Community College Arts & Humanities, 2 March 2011.(Retrieved December 2, 2017.)
- ^ Online version is titled "Percival Everett's deadly serious comedy".