LLWRC 916 - Modern Masters: Percival Everett

One of the great contemporary American novelists, Percival Everett, will be giving a talk at the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah in late October. To celebrate and prepare for his visit, this course will explore three of his luminous, clever, and devious novels: Erasure (2001, adapted as the film American Fiction), The Trees (2021, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), and the recent James (2024, an adaptation of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn). These works explore the contemporary and historical experiences of African Americans with wry irony and meticulous craft.