Industrious, irreverent, humble–though he may deny the accusation–Percival Everett, like his fiction, defies categorization. His most recent novel, James, earned both the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the National Book Award, and his 2001 novel Erasure inspired the film American Fiction, which received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2024.

Everett’s other titles include Dr. No, The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. Despite these accomplishments, he remains devoted to reviewing his own work critically, and indeed his writing process involves intensive research and revision. Tune in for our conversation with Percival Everett to get a glimpse beyond the page.

Brandis Friedman will moderate the event. Friedman is a writer and anchor for WTTW’s Chicago Tonight and Chicago Tonight: Black Voices, and also serves as a champion for libraries.

Click here to register for the event, or scan the QR code below. Please note – When registering for the event, you will have to select your library. Hayner Library is listed as The Hayner Public Library District (so you’ll need to scroll to the letter “T” when searching for our library).