Rebecca Makkai  (March 19, 2025)

I Have Some Questions for You, by Rebecca Makkai

Rebecca Makkai is the author of several novels, including The Great Believers, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and received the ALA Carnegie Medal and the LA Times Book Prize among other honors. Her most recent book, the bestselling I Have Some Questions for You, blends mystery and social critique in a whodunit set at a New Hampshire boarding school. People calls it “a twisty, immersive whodunit perfect for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History,” while the Boston Globe deems it an “irresistible literary page-turner” and the New York Times pronounces it “enthralling.” A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Makkai teaches graduate fiction writing at several universities and divides her time between Chicago and Vermont.

Rebecca Makkai’s visit:  March 19

USC's Rebecca Stern’s talk on Rebecca Makkai: March 17

     Jennifer Croft  (March 26, 2025)

The Extinction of Irena Rey, by Jennifer Croft

Jennifer Croft won the Man Booker International Prize for her translation from Polish of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights. Croft is the author of Homesick, a Saroyan Prize winner, and numerous pieces in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. In this novel about translation by one of the world’s most famous living practitioners, eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus to translate the magnum opus of a world-renown author who soon disappears without a trace. This critically and commercially hailed book offers a provocative exploration of art and the natural world. In her New York Times review, Fiona Mazel writes, “The Extinction of Irena Rey is incredibly strange, savvy, sly and hard to classify. I also couldn’t put it down…. [The novel] is mad with plot and language and gorgeous prose.” 

Jennifer Croft’s visit:  March 26

USC's Federica Schoeman’s talk on Jennifer Croft:  March 24

     Vinson Cunningham  (April 2, 2025)

Great Expectations, by Vinson Cunningham

Vinson Cunningham is a staff writer and a theatre critic at The New Yorker and a Pulitzer Prize Finalist. His essays, reviews, and profiles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review,McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and elsewhere. In 2020, he was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for his profile of comedian Tracy Morgan. A former White House staffer, he has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the Yale School of Art, and Columbia University’s School of the Arts. His debut novel, Great Expectations, follows a young black campaign staffer working on the historic presidential campaign of an Illinois Senator. The book has been lauded for its character insights, gem-like prose, and skillful grappling with race. Washington Post-reviewer Ron Charles describes it as “a coming-of-age story that captures the soul of America,” while Publishers Weekly declares that it “matches the scale of its namesake.” The Wall Street Journal calls Great Expectations “one of the smartest and most involving political novels in ages.”

Vinson Cunningham’s visit:  April 2

USC's Elise Blackwell’s talk on Vinson Cunningham:  March 31

      Percival Everett  (April 4, 2025)

James, by Percival Everett

The 2025 edition of The Open Book will conclude with a special appearance by Percival Everett, who will speak about James. An action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the novel was an immediate New York Times bestseller, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and won both the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Award . As the Chicago Tribune declared, James is “a masterpiece that will help redefine one of the classics of American literature, while also being a major achievement on its own.” Percival Everett grew up right here in Columbia and is a graduate of A.C. Flora High School. He has gone on to publish two dozen novels in addition to poetry and other writings. Among his many honors are an NEA fellowship and a Guggenheim fellowship, and in 2021 he received the Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle. He currently teaches at the other USC and lives in Los Angeles.

Percival Everett’s visit:   FRIDAY, April 4

USC's Elise Blackwell’s talk on Percival Everett:  March 31