2024 McCreight Lecture in the Humanities: Percival Everett

As part of its ongoing 50th anniversary programming, the West Virginia Humanities Council will host renowned novelist and poet Percival Everett for its annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities on October 17 in Charleston. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of over thirty books, Everett released his latest novel this year: James, a reimagining of Mark Twain’s classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. American Fiction, a 2023 film based on Everett’s novel Erasure, won the most recent Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The annual McCreight Lecture, which the Council has presented for 41 years, has featured luminaries such as filmmaker Ken Burns, novelist Joyce Carol Oates, historians James McPherson and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and more. On this landmark occasion, Percival Everett will discuss the topic of contemporary American literature. The event is free and open to the public.

Presented each October, the McCreight Lecture affords West Virginians the opportunity to hear nationally respected scholars and public intellectuals on a variety of humanities topics. McCreight Lecturers have included Ken Burns, Joyce Carol Oates, Joseph Ellis, Sylvia Nasar, Henry Louis Gates, Elaine Pagels, Gordon Wood, James McPherson, Edmund Morris, and Annette Gordon-Reed.

Admission is free, no RSVP required. Select Percival Everett titles will be sold at the door courtesy of Taylor Books of Charleston.

West Virginia Humanities Council: wvhumanities.org