\u201cWriting novels,\u201d Percival Everett<\/b> says, \u201cis really an excuse to study something. I\u2019m not so much interested in selling books as I am in the opportunity to study something. This is what I do; it allows me to discover and create a whole new world and a whole new voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the author of 20 novels, four collections of short stories, and two books of poetry, Everett speaks from experience. In 2002, he won the Hurston\/Wright Legacy Award for his novel \u201cErasure,\u201d and he gave a reading on his most recent novel, \u201cSo Much Blue,\u201d at CC last year. Everett is additionally the recipient of the Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Believer Book Award, and the 2006 PEN USA Center Award for Fiction.<\/p>\n
A distinguished professor of English at the University of Southern California, Everett visited Colorado College during Block 4, teaching an Advanced Fiction Workshop, a class consisting of six students, all creative writing majors.<\/p>\n
At USC, Everett teaches the undergraduate students fiction and a film course focusing on the American Western, while his graduate classes focus on literary theory. His research in American studies and critical theories of literature takes him across the country and world to give lectures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved Percival\u2019s technique in teaching,\u201d says Jade Frost \u201917<\/b>. \u201cHe gave us free range to write stories. The workshops never felt like workshops, but rather he made it a space where it was a conversation of constructive feedback, there was never pressure. Percival was truly invested in each of our stories and how we could enhance it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his prolific writing career, Everett\u2019s undergraduate degree was in biochemistry and mathematical logic, and his graduate degree was in philosophy. It wasn\u2019t until he attended Brown University for his master\u2019s that Everett focused
\non literary fiction, and it was at Brown that he published his first novel, \u201cGlyph,\u201d a parody of literary theory. When asked how literary theory became a specialty of his, he referred to studying with some of the very first semioticians \u2014 those who study signs and symbols and their use or interpretation \u2014 at Brown.<\/p>\n
As a professor, Everett acknowledges the challenges of encouraging students to pursue their love of writing. \u201cThere are two conversations I can have with a student,\u201d Everett says. \u201cThe easy one is \u2018Don\u2019t quit your day job; this isn\u2019t for you.\u2019 The other conversation is much more difficult because it is much more serious. If I say to someone, \u2018Listen, you have talent and you should pursue this,\u2019 I am recommending them to go into a field where very few people have success, and the monetary compensation for your labor is lower than other professions. You need to be really certain you love it to do it. You can\u2019t go into it thinking \u2018I\u2019m going to be rich.\u2019 But if you love it, then no one can stop you from doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everett was very optimistic about the block he taught at CC, and says he would definitely return to teach again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited about how eager the students are to create their work, and maybe that\u2019s a function of the Block Plan,\u201d he says. \u201cSemesters can feel really long \u2014 16 weeks. This seems to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWriting novels,\u201d Percival Everett says, \u201cis really an excuse to study something. I\u2019m not so much interested in selling books as I am in the opportunity to study something. This is what I do; it allows me to discover and create a whole new world and a whole new voice.\u201d As the author of 20…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":952,"featured_media":11803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-11855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2017","tag-features"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/files\/2017\/04\/percival20everett2002c2a9bruno20nuttens_actessud.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/952"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11856,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11855\/revisions\/11856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}