Percival Everett is USC Distinguished professor in the Department of English. He is a highly acclaimed novelist and poet, having authored 25 books and numerous articles. He researches and teaches American studies, creative writing, and critical theory. He has won many awards for his work, including the PEN USA Literary Award for Fiction, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award, the the New American Writing Award, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. He has most recently been awarded a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship. His recent novel, “Percival Everett by Virgil Russell”, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2013, and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and for the PEN / Faulkner Award for Fiction.