Every fall, Colgate’s Living Writers series brings to campus prominent authors, including poets, essayists, novelists, illustrative writers — masters of just about any form. The series connects students with life-changing books and, more importantly, creates a space for life-changing conversations.
Professor of English Jennifer Brice, who organizes Living Writers, shares the secret to this year’s success. “It [was] pretty extraordinary. Partly this is about the writers,” who, Brice says, were “unusually thoughtful, forthright, and generous.” But it’s also about the students. “I’ve lost track of the number of times a writer has said, ‘Wow, what a great question. No one has ever asked me that before.’”
Meet some of the authors from this fall’s series.
Percival Everett: Jack of All Trades, Master of One
Words are the most important thing in the world for Percival Everett, author of James.
The novel is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck’s enslaved sidekick, Jim. Language plays a crucial role in the enslaved character’s autonomy. The enslaved people in the novel are secretly intelligent performers, feigning stupidity for a white audience. One Living Writers student suggested that James is an imaginative take on code-switching (alternating between languages or dialects, usually to conform to certain standards), and Everett agreed, although he said he never thought of the term himself while writing.
According to Everett, reading especially is an act of defiance. During his visit to Colgate, Everett explained that the power of reading is not limited to the world of James.
He told students that “reading really is subversive because no one can see what is going into you. They can look over your shoulder and see all the words you see, but they will never know what they mean to you.”
James won the National Book Award for fiction and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The film adaptation is currently in the works with Steven Spielberg, Taika Waititi, and Universal Pictures.
Everett wasn’t always a writer. He studied mathematical logic and biochemistry, with stints in jazz music, painting, and cowboying. Now he is a distinguished professor of English at the University of Southern California and has published more than 30 books.
Hanif Abdurraqib: Learning From Legends
Hanif Abdurraqib is a genius — literally. In 2021 he was awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant. According to the foundation: “Omnivorous in his influences and prolific in his output, Abdurraqib is forging a new form of cultural criticism.”
Abdurraqib grew up as a voracious reader. His mother was a writer and shared her favorite books with her son, indifferent to whether they might be too demanding for a young mind. He remembers his mother saying: “‘If there’s something you don’t understand, we’ll talk about it.’”
Abdurraqib’s mother died when he was only 13 years old. He nearly failed out of high school, but he graduated in 2001 and went on to earn a degree from Capital University.
Abdurraqib told students that writing helps him cope with his grief, because “I get to keep my memories. I can build something internal in text that lives beyond me. That, in and of itself, is a miracle.”
Since then, he has published music criticisms, two poetry collections, an essay collection, and three nonfiction books, as well as prose for Pitchfork and the New York Times. The morning of his visit to Colgate, he learned that his nonfiction book There’s Always This Year was long-listed for the National Book Award.
Abdurraqib is no stranger to stardom. He watched LeBron James’ rise to fame as a basketball prodigy in their home state of Ohio — where James returned to secure a championship trophy in 2016. There’s Always This Year is a tribute to basketball and what it means to be a legend.
Peggy Shumaker: ‘Daughter of Two Deserts’
Peggy Shumaker has braved America’s most extreme natural environments on both ends of the spectrum. She’s currently based in Alaska and even served as the Alaska State writer laureate, but she’s originally from Tucson, Ariz. She’s also weathered years in a dysfunctional family; her mother was just 19 when Shumaker was born. Writing has helped Shumaker understand these environments.
“My family was coming apart, and the page was the only place in the world I had control. Writing was survival,” Shumaker told the Living Writers class. “There’s a whole lot in this world that I don’t understand, and there’s a whole lot in this world I can’t make better. Those are the two major reasons I write.”
Shumaker is a virtuoso of the love poem — but not the romantic type. Her most recent collection, Cairn, is a tribute to her genuine love for her friends and the natural world.
She has eight books of poetry and a lyrical memoir. She is an editor at several publishing venues, including Red Hen Press’ Boreal Books, which she founded herself.
For Brice, Shumaker’s visit was especially meaningful. Brice earned her MFA at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and was taught by Shumaker herself.