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Author Percival Everett

Join us when author Percival Everett visits to discuss his latest novel, James, followed by an announcement of the 89th Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners.

Acclaimed writer Percival Everett will discuss his latest novel, James, a brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the enslaved character Jim's point of view. This presentation will be part of a conversation with Gillian Johns, Associate Professor of English at Oberlin College and Conservatory. As the evening concludes, Everett will announce the winners of the 89th Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.   

Registration for this event is FREE. VIP tickets are also available for purchase.

Each VIP ticket ($30) includes:

• A copy of James 
• VIP seating at the event
• A donation to the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation

CLICK HERE to purchase VIP tickets

About the Author

Percival Everett's most recent books include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award) The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, Erasure, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He has a poetry collection forthcoming with Red Hen Press. He has received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction, and is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC.

In James, when the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

Event Details

Additional books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Mac’s Backs – Books on Coventry.

For questions about accessibility or to request accommodations for individuals with hearing, visual or mobility impairments, please email [email protected].

NO REFUNDS. If you are unable to attend the event, please contact [email protected] to claim the book(s) included with your VIP ticket purchase and schedule pick up from the CCPL branch of your choice. Books not claimed within 7 days of the event will be donated to the Library.

Questions? Email us at [email protected].