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Populist and patrician, hustler and moralist, salesman and satirist, he embodied the tensions within his America, and ours.

By Dan White Acclaimed novelist Percival Everett will step onto the stage of the Quarry Amphitheater at UC Santa Cruz this weekend for a highly anticipated conversation with Professor Vilashini Cooppan as part of The Humanities Institute’s Deep Read.

The quote about Cincinnati being "20 years behind the times" is commonly attributed to Mark Twain. No one knows for sure whether the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" author really said it, but it's a funny line nonetheless − until you realize how often it rings true.

Percival Everett spoke with Dan White, Humanities Writer at UC Santa Cruz, about the creation of his 2024 National Book Award-winning novel James, a book that reoccupies and reimagines Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved character Jim.

The fog scene, in which Jim upbraids Huck for playing a cruel trick on him and elicits an apology, Fishkin points out, is a rare moment in 19th century American fiction in which an enslaved Black man teaches a white person to treat others with respect.

While the brothers’ time spent in Salt Lake City was brief, Twain’s narrative offers a humorous (albeit exaggerated and irreverent) outsider’s perspective on early Utah. Twain is impressed by the Mormon settlers’ industry, puzzled by their practice of polygamy, bored by their scripture and enthralled with their mountainous landscape.

For Tommy Wooten, directing Union County Playmakers production of “Big River” feels like a homecoming. Wooten, born and raised in Monroe, attended Benton Heights Elementary School.