USC Dornsife’s Percival Everett Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Percival Everett, Distinguished Professor of English at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, has been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel James — a bold and poignant reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved character.
Published in March 2024 by Doubleday, James has received a wave of national and international recognition, winning the National Book Award, the Kirkus Prize and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. It was also a finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award.
In a statement through his publisher, Everett said, “I am shocked and pleased, but mostly shocked. This is a wonderful honor. I am especially flattered to have been considered along with the other finalists.”
In its review, The New York Times praised the book as “Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful. Beneath the wordplay, and below the packed dirt floor of Everett’s moral sensibility, James is an intensely imagined human being.”
The Pulitzer Prize Board described James as “an accomplished reconsideration of Huckleberry Finn that gives agency to Jim to illustrate the absurdity of racial supremacy and provide a new take on the search for family and freedom.” Everett was previously a Pulitzer finalist in 2022 for his novel The Trees.
“It’s Percival’s masterful storytelling, wit, and humanity that have earned him this prestigious prize,” said Moh El-Naggar, interim dean of USC Dornsife. “By giving a voice to Jim, Percival shows the power of retelling and challenging even the most classic of tales. USC Dornsife is proud to be home to one of the literary giants of our time.”
Everett is widely regarded as one of the most original and prolific voices in American literature. His genre-defying body of work spans satire, Westerns and experimental prose. His 2001 novel Erasure was adapted into the Oscar-winning 2023 film American Fiction.
“Having some of the most accomplished authors of the century on our faculty is a testament to the caliber of our department and the exceptional talent within it,” said Dana Johnson, chair of USC Dornsife’s English department and Florence R. Scott Professor of English. “I couldn’t be more proud of Percival and the fact that our students learn from some of the nation’s greatest thinkers and writers.”
The popular professor has taught creative writing at USC Dornsife since 1998 and credits his students for their impact on his life. “They keep me from getting old too fast,” he told USC Dornsife News in an earlier interview. “I love their energy. I love their openness to ideas. And that’s something that we can all stand to be reminded of.”