Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison is a writer—and desperate: his sophisticated books receive little attention, while cliché-ridden 'ghetto novels' about Black people are celebrated. Out of anger, he writes just such a stereotypical, provocative novel himself, under a pseudonym, titled 'Fuck'. The success is overwhelming. But with fame comes chaos in Monk's life. 'Erased' is a biting, clever satire of the literary world, cultural expectations, and the question of who gets to tell a story—and how. biography Percival Everett, born in 1956 in Fort Gordon, Georgia, USA, is a writer and professor of English at the University of Southern California. Like few other authors, he demonstrates a broad range of genres, having written, among other things, a satire on the publishing industry, a children's book, short stories, retellings of the Greek myths of Medea and Dionysus, and a philosophical treatise from the perspective of a four-year-old. Everett has received numerous awards, including the 2006 PEN USA Literary Award and the Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. New product