The Stowe Center for Literary Activism Announces 2025 Stowe Prize for Literary Activism

Percival Everett’s James First Fiction to Win the Stowe Prize for Literary Activism

Hartford, Conn.—The Stowe Center for Literary Activism announces the 2025 Stowe Prize for Literary Activism. The winner is Percival Everett for James: A Novel (Doubleday, 2024).

This, the eleventh prize awarded, is the first work of fiction to win.

James is a reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told by James, known as “Jim” in Mark Twain’s 1885 novel. “But to call James a retelling would be an injustice,” writes Tyler Austin Harper in The Atlantic Magazine (April 2024). “Everett sends Mark Twain’s classic through the looking glass. …[James’s] realities lie in the details of life lived under conditions of unceasing brutality—the omnipresent whip, the daily interplay of dread and panic, the rage that can find no outlet.”

Everett offers a more truthful representation of an enslaved person, one free of many of the stereotypes cast upon Black people throughout the American literary canon—stereotypes that Harriet Beecher Stowe also perpetuated in her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

“The depiction of enslaved people is always that they are childlike, simple minded, incapable of second order thinking… even in ‘Huck Finn,’ Jim is portrayed as childlike and incapable of even understanding practical jokes that are played on him,” said Everett in an interview with The Culture Show, April 2024. “Of course, no one is like that. Enslaved people aren’t like that.”

The Stowe Prize Selection Committee, comprised of educators and avid readers, found the book compelling, readable, vindicating, with a clear social justice message that reclaims agency, individuality, intelligence, and humanity for James.

Stowe Prize Selection Committee member Dr. Lucinda Canty championed James from the start. The Director of Lucinda’s House in Windsor, Connecticut, Canty is dedicated to creating environments where women of color feel safe, supported, and can become an active part in eliminating structural barriers to improve their overall health and wellbeing. She said of the novel: “James represents storytelling at its finest—so exceptional that at times you forget James is a work of fiction.” She added: “The narrative served as a means to understand the value of history, especially in defining one’s self. I can’t remember the last time I read anything that evoked such strong emotions of anger, fear, intrigue, hope, and love.”

Chair of the Stowe Center’s Board of Trustees and Chair of the Selection Committee, Dr. Michael Mallery said: “Reading James was a transformative experience for me. In an era where debates over historical narratives and representation intensify, Percival Everett’s James masterfully repositions Jim as an authoritative figure—imbued with depth, soul, and elegance. This compelling portrayal challenged me to confront uncomfortable truths and delve deeper into reexamining the stories we’ve been told, both contextually and historically.”

Particularly the selection committee, charged with finding a literary activist book with deep social justice consequence, focused on language and literacy as exemplified in this story as paths for freedom of the mind.

“Oppressed people in oppressive situations use language the same way we always use language — to communicate,” Everett said in a radio interview. “What they have to do is communicate in a way that doesn’t allow their oppressors to have access.”

Everett’s book is the eleventh Stowe Prize for Literary Activism. Legacy Sponsor The Hartford has provided support for this $10,000 prize since its inception. Past Stowe Prize winners are:

Dr. Bettina Love, Punished for Dreaming: How Education Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal (St. Martin’s Press, 2023)
Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (Princeton University Press, 2022)
Dr. Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery across America (Little, Brown, 2022)
Dr. Eddie Glaude, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Today (Crown, 2020)
Albert Woodfox, Solitary (Grove Press, 2019)
Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Crown, 2018)
Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2017)
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations” (The Atlantic, 2014)
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (The New Press, 2013)
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Vintage, 2011)

The Stowe Prize for Literary Activism will be awarded to Percival Everett at a public ceremony in Hartford in September. Details will follow.

About Legacy Sponsor: The Hartford is a leader in property and casualty insurance, employee benefits and mutual funds. With more than 200 years of expertise, The Hartford is widely recognized for its service excellence, sustainability practices, trust and integrity. More information on the company and its financial performance is available at https://www.thehartford.com.

About the Author
Percival Everett (1956-) is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and prize-winning author of 15 novels and collections. James: A Novel has won the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2024 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. It was also a finalist for the 2024 Booker Prize.

About the Stowe Prize
The Stowe Prize for Literary Activism recognizes the author of a distinguished book of general adult fiction or nonfiction whose written work illuminates a critical social justice issue in the tradition of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The winning book applies informed inquiry, is accessible and engaging to a wide audience, and promotes empathy and understanding. In creating this award, the Stowe Center recognizes the power of literary activism to strengthen our communities.

Stowe Prize for Literary Activism Selection Committee
Dr. Michael Mallery, Chair, Director of Social Emotional Learning, Windsor Schools
Antoinette Brim-Hill, Poet Laureate Connecticut
Dr. Brian Waddell, Political Science, Urban and Community Studies, University of Connecticut
Kamora Herrington, Director, Kamora’s Cultural Corner
Dr. Lucinda Canty, Director, Lucinda’s House

Press Inquiries
For interviews and additional information, please contact Communications Manager, Christina Tom at CTom@StoweCenter.org or 860-522-9258 ext. 316.

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.

School Group Interest Form 2024

Group Tour Interest Form 2022