“I was playing tennis. I hit the ball wide out of the court, and as I watched it sail, I thought to myself, has anyone ever told the story about Jim? And that’s how it started,” said Pulitzer Prize–winning author Percival Everett as he reflected on his inspiration for the novel “James,” which reimagines Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from Jim’s view.

Everett spoke to a full house in the Student Union Conference Center and to more than 900 online viewers Saturday, Nov. 8, engaging students and community members in a discussion about race, language and literature.

Los Medanos College President Pamela Ralston opened the program, welcoming guests and emphasizing the importance of literacy and access to college.

“Access to higher education is the core part of the community college mission,” Ralston said. “Higher learning is an essential cornerstone of democracy, and literacy is a form of self-realization and agency.”

After introductions, English professor Tess Caldwell took the stage to lead the conversation with Everett. Known for her passion for literature, Caldwell guided the dialogue with thoughtful, student-driven questions from her classes’ readings of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “James.”

Everett, an English professor at the University of Southern California and author of more than 30 other books, including “The Trees” and “Erasure,” spoke with confidence and intention, mixing dry humor with sharp insight as he explained that his deeper motivation for the novel came from confronting harmful portrayals of enslaved people through literature and film.

“I wish I could say that I had a long-burning desire to embark on this work, but that wouldn’t be true,” he said. “As much as I’m a fan of Twain, it wasn’t Huck Finn that drew me in. It was the persistent and ubiquitous depiction of slaves that we’ve lived with for our entire history, especially in literature and film.”

That depiction of enslaved people “as simple-minded and superstitious still exists in our culture,” he said. “Obviously that’s not true. We’re talking about human beings.”

Everett drew on parallels between literature and jazz, emphasizing both as art forms rooted in survival and self-expression.

 “Jazz, created by Black people, is where they were able to define themselves,” Everett said, crediting jazz pianist Bud Powell’s music for shaping his creativity. Everett used this connection to highlight how Black art, whether in sound or text, continues to challenge imposed narratives.

When asked about dialect and authenticity, Everett said he avoided the stereotypical slave dialect found in classic literature.

“We have no way of knowing how enslaved people actually spoke,” he said. “The dialect we’ve become used to is a construct. I wrote in standard English as kind of irony. It was my way of giving Jim back his agency.”

In one of the most intimate moments of the event, Everett reflected on racial passing in its legacy in American history. He shared a story about his family — his grandfather in South Carolina and his brother, who moved north and lived as white.

“The whole idea of passing is a weird one,” Everett said. “Society shouldn’t tell people that this bogus category should inform their authenticity. The last thing we need is authenticity police.”

When asked what advice he would give to young writers, Everett cracked a joke before getting serious.

“Advice I didn’t follow? Marry money,” he said, drawing big laughter from the crowd.

Then he added, “You don’t write literary fiction because you want to get rich, you do it because you love it. I love literature and I love to read. You just have to be tenacious and stay with it.”

And when you stay with it, he said, you learn a lot about what you don’t know.

“The great thing for me about making books is, I think I know something when I start and when I finish, I realize, I didn’t know anything. And after writing 30 books, I know less than most people,” he quipped.

Everett’s humor and honesty kept the audience engaged, with frequent applause and laughter. And to aspiring writers he offered this: “It’s not lost on me that under beds and in closets and in drawers, there are novels every bit as good or better than anything I’ve written, that people haven’t put into the world.”

Audience member Cindy Chan appreciated the opportunity to hear someone of Everett’s literary stature speak at LMC.

“I just think it’s amazing that they were able to get such a renowned and accomplished author to come here,” she said. “This is not Harvard.”

Ralston credited the collaboration between the Contra Costa County Library and LMC for bringing Everett to campus.

 “The more we read about our shared history, the more empowered we are to understand where we come from and where we ought to go,” she said. “Events like this help us keep conversations about race, literature and identity alive. An incredible writer like Percival Everett makes those discussions accessible and powerful.”

For many of the attendees, the afternoon with Everett was more than just an author talk — it was a reminder of literature’s power to question, connect and redefine understanding.

If you missed the event and would like to watch it in its entirety, the replay is available at www.youtube.com/@theccclib.