Percival Everett Will Open River City Writers Series Feb. 4-5

For release: January 29, 2008
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey

Acclaimed author Percival Everett will open the spring 2008 season of the University of Memphis' River City Writers Series. He will read from his work Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Fogelman Executive Center, Room 123. A reception will precede the reading at 6 p.m. On Feb. 5 he will conduct an interview with students at 10:30 a.m. in Patterson Hall, Room 456. Both events are free and open to the public.

Everett is the author of 19 books, including a farcical Western, a savage satire of the publishing industry, a children's story spoofing counting books and retellings of the Greek myths of Medea and Dionysus. Everett has earned the PEN USA Literary Award for his 2005 novel Wounded, the Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for his 2001 novel Erasure. He also won the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature for his 1996 story collection Big Picture. Everett is a distinguished professor of English at the University of Southern California, where he teaches creative writing, American studies and critical theory.

The River City Writers Series is sponsored by the U of M English Department, the Creative Writing Club, Sigma Tau Delta, the Student Activities Council, Academic Enrichment Funds, Public Service Funds, the Hohenberg Foundation, Deborah Talbot, and Friends of the University Libraries.

For more information, call 901-678-4692.