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An Interview With Percival Everett

Written by

Tiffany Chiang

•

In this episode, we chat with acclaimed author, poet, and painter Percival Everett to discuss his award-winning novel James—the 2024 National Book Award winner and Libro.fm’s Audiobook of the Year. Percival shares his thoughts on the magic of language, the role of place in storytelling, and the whirlwind experience of his recent book tour. He also reflects on balancing his many creative passions, his journey as a writer, and the profound power of literature.

Listen to the full episode 

Read the transcript

The idea of language is essential to my entire project as a person. The beauty of it is we’re capable of not understanding each other, yet still making meaning. And so that gives language of life of its own, however dependent it is on speaker and hearer. So starting with that and the magic of this thing we call language, it makes sense that anyone who wants to control us or hurt us, the first thing they do is take away language, take away certain words.”

—Percival Everett on the Libro.fm Podcast

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About our guest

Percival Everett is a celebrated American writer and a Distinguished Professor of English at USC whose 2024 novel James won the National Book Award. His work has earned numerous honors, including the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, and the Windham-Campbell Prize. In 2023, his novel Erasure was adapted into the feature film American Fiction.

A headshot of Percival Everett.

Other audiobooks by the author

And check out our favorites!

Cover of James

James

By Percival Everett • Narrated by Dominic Hoffman

Cover of Erasure

Erasure

By Percival Everett • Narrated by Sean Crisden

Cover of The Trees

The Trees

By Percival Everett • Narrated by Bill Andrew Quinn

See more

Audiobooks discussed on today’s episode

Cover of The Way of All Flesh

The Way of All Flesh

By Samuel Butler • Narrated by David Timson

Cover of The Last Room on the Left

The Last Room on the Left

By Leah Konen • Narrated by Karissa Vacker, Erin Bennett & Julie Webster

Cover of The Snow Killer

The Snow Killer

By Ross Greenwood • Narrated by David Thorpe

Cover of We Could Be Rats

We Could Be Rats

By Emily Austin • Narrated by Candace Thaxton

Author

Tiffany Chiang
Tiffany C. (she/her) (@readbytiffany) is a Taiwanese American bookstagrammer and book blogger. She is the co-founder of Subtle Asian Book Club (SABC), an international book club with 15,000+ members dedicated to amplifying Asian storytellers. She is passionate about uplifting marginalized voices and building connections through literature. SABC’s annual virtual book conference, Subtle Asian Book Con, has raised over $4,000 for various nonprofits to combat anti-AAPI hate, help public schools and libraries build and maintain robust Asian American literature collections, and make mental health more accessible for Asian communities worldwide. When she isn’t traveling for work or organizing her life for fun, she can be found annotating her favorite books, marathoning webcomics, staying up late reading manga, and brainstorming new ideas.

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