Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Percival Everett will visit Clemson on September 4 to give his headliner reading from the 2025 Clemson Literary Festival. The reading will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Daniel Hall Extension, room G66.
Everett’s original visit was postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. Since the original date, Everett’s novel James, which won a National Book Award in 2024, was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
“Clemson is very fortunate to host Percival Everett, who is a major contemporary novelist as well as a South Carolinian,” David Coombs, Associate Professor in the Department of English said. “I’ve heard from many Clemson students how much they enjoyed reading James for their classes last year, and we’re all very excited for the opportunity to hear Everett speak on campus.”
James reimagines Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain by telling the story through the perspective of Jim, an escaped slave and Huckleberry’s travel companion. The novel is praised for its powerful exploration of the idea of justice.
Everett’s other titles include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award), The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, Erasure and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He has received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award and The Windham Campbell Prize from Yale University.
Everett’s work has found success beyond the page as well. His novel Erasure inspired the feature film American Fiction, which was released in 2023 and was awarded the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Everett currently teaches at the University of Southern California as a Distinguished Professor of English. This event is sponsored by the Clemson Literary Festival, the Clemson Humanities Hub and the Pathways in the Humanities and Social Sciences Lecture Series. For additional information contact David Coombs at dcoombs@clemson.edu.
