Author Percival Everett comes to Woodbridge

By Josh Eiserike

Published: April 3, 2008

Percival Everett has written numerous books, including "God's Country," "Erasure" and "The Water Cure." He's built a healthy resume of literary awards, but almost two years ago something happened that might change his writing forever.

Everett and his wife Danzy Senna welcomed their first child, Henry.

A second is on the way.

"It has and it will [change my writing], but I'm too close to see the difference," Everett, 51, said.

Everett, who lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the University of Southern California, visits Woodbridge Tuesday at the Northern Virginia Community College.

"I'll be reading from my latest novel, it's called 'The Water Cure'," Everett said. "It's my response to this war. It's about indulgence and a practice of torture, about using a tragedy as an excuse for any bad behavior."

He will also answer questions and sign books.

"I hope the job of a writer is somewhat demystified," Everett said during a telephone interview.

He added that he hopes to take out some of the fear of the writing process—and instill some new fears.

"I've rebuilt engines, I've been lost in the woods, but, the hardest thing I've ever done is write a novel," Everett said. "It requires complete devotion to the project. You will alienate everyone you know…. It's like knowingly entering a bad marriage."

Bob Bausch, 62, of Stafford, teaches English at Woodbridge campus. He met Everett at a writer's workshop in Colorado last summer and invited him to Virginia.

"I've always admired his works," Bausch said. "It's risky. He's experimental."

Bausch said that this is the first time he's brought an experimental writer to campus. He has some students who claim to be experimental writers, but don't know the form. In reality, they're too lazy to learn, he said.

Experimental writers are writers that take writing conventions and turn them on their head, sideways or backwards. For example, Bausch said that in one of Everett's books, he numbers chapters "won" and "too," which fits with the context of the story.

"I want them to see a writer who works really hard at mastering the form," Bausch said. "He masters the form, then he messes with it…. But mostly I want them to master the form before they start messing with it."

He also said that Everett doesn't like the label "experimental writer."

Bausch added that Everett tells stories that are serious and usually funny—and typically gets the reader to consider dark and serious subjects such as racism, murder and revenge.

He said "The Water Cure," his favorite Everett novel, is a very powerful story about revenge. Both Bausch and Everett wouldn't go into much detail about the story.

"It's something you should read," Bausch said.

While neither Bausch nor Everett would go into detail about "The Water Cure," according to the summary on amazon.com the book is about an isolated man who seeks his revenge after his daughter is murdered.

Everett was born in Fort Gordon, Ga. and grew up in Columbia, S.C.

He said he never really tried his hand at creative writing until graduate school (save a play he wrote in high school). But, he was always a reader.

He studied at the University of Miami then went to Brown University for a masters in creative writing. Prior to that, he was doing his graduate work in philosophy, but became disenchanted and thought fiction could better address issues of language and morality.

"It was what interested me," Everett said. "I was always interested in how people make meaning."

He had an "embarrassingly easy" time publishing his first novel. A professor passed it along to an agent without Everett knowing about it. A couple weeks later, he had sold his first book, "Suder," about a baseball player.

"I don't know if I was particularly gifted at it, but I worked hard at it," Everett said. "It's always magic when you create something that wasn't always there."

Everett said he is working on a new novel, but is coy about the details.

"I never talk about my work," Everett said.

Staff writer Josh Eiserike can be reached at 703-878-8072 or .

WANT TO GO?

What's up: Author Percival Everett will read from his book "The Water Cure"

When: April 8 at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Woodbridge Campus Theater, Northern Virginia Community College, 15200 Neabsco Mills Road, Woodbridge

Cost: Free and open to the public

Call: Bob Bausch at 703-878-5664