Percival Everett

Percival Everett, Distinguished Professor of English, has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025, an award that, according to Time, focuses “on the individuals who are transforming the world.” Of Everett’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel James, writer and director Cord Jefferson wrote for Time: “Many writers are afraid to insert levity in stories of tragedy, particularly stories of violent prejudice. But James, which won the National Book Award, shows that to omit joy is to do a disservice to the people who endured those tragedies.” (Jefferson won the Academy Award for his screenplay of American Fiction, which he adapted from Everett’s book Erasure.)