Caroline Randall Williams (born August 24, 1987) is an American author, poet and academic best known for the 2015 cookbook ''Soul Food Love'', co-written with her mother, author

Alice Randall Alice Randall (born May 4, 1959) is an American author, songwriter, producer, and lecturer. She is best known for her contributions to country music, in addition to her novel and New York Times bestseller '' The Wind Done Gone'', which is a rein ...

, and published by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

. In February, 2016, ''Soul Food Love'' received the NAACP Image Award in Literature (Instructional). In 2015, her book of poetry, ''Lucy Negro, Redux'' was published by Ampersand Books. ''Lucy Negro, Redux'' was adapted as a ballet by the Nashville Ballet.

Biography

Williams is a native of

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. She graduated from St. Paul's School in 2006 and from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 2010. After graduation, she spent two years as an instructor in the

Teach for America Teach For America (TFA) is an American nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to "enlist, develop, and mobilize as many as possible of our nation's most promising future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational excell ...

program. She received an MFA in creative writing from the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

in 2015. She is the daughter of Alice Randall and Avon Williams III. She is the great-granddaughter of

Arna Bontemps Arna Wendell Bontemps ( ) (October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973) was an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Bontemps was born in 1902 in Alexandria, Louisiana, into a Louisiana Creole peopl ...

, the African-American poet, novelist and noted member of the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

, and the granddaughter of

Avon Williams Avon N. Williams, Jr. (December 22, 1921 – August 29, 1994) was a Tennessee State Senator from 1972 to 1992. Biography Avon Nyanza Williams, Jr. was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was a 1940 graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, an hist ...

, the Nashville lawyer and key leader of the city's civil rights movement. One of her great-great-grandfathers was

Edmund Pettus Edmund Winston Pettus (July 6, 1821 – July 27, 1907) was an American lawyer, politician and military officer who represented Alabama in the United States Senate from 1897 to 1907. He served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Ar ...

, a white US senator of Alabama, senior

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

of the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...

and

grand dragon Ku Klux Klan (KKK) nomenclature has evolved over the order's nearly 160 years of existence. The titles and designations were first laid out in the 1920s ''Kloran'', setting out KKK terms and traditions. Like many KKK terms, this is a portmanteau t ...

of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

. Pettus and his enslaved black servant were the parents of her great-grandfather Will. She has stated, "The black people I come from were owned and raped by the white people I come from." In January 2015, she was named by ''

Southern Living ''Southern Living'' is a lifestyle magazine aimed at readers in the Southern United States featuring recipes, house plans, garden plans, and information about Southern culture and travel. It is published by Birmingham, Alabama Alabama ...

'' magazine as one of the "50 People Changing the South in 2015." In 2015, she joined the faculty of West Virginia University as an assistant professor. In 2016 she was appointed Writer-In-Residence at

Fisk University Fisk University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus i ...

. In the Fall of 2019, she joined the faculty of

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

. as the Writer-In-Residence of Medicine, Health, and Society.

Books

''Soul Food Love''

Published by Random House in 2015, ''Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family'' is co-authored by Williams and her mother, the novelist Alice Randall. According to the publisher, the book relates the authors’ family history (which mirrors that of much of black America in the 20th century), explores the often fraught relationship African-American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage.

''Lucy Negro, Redux''

Williams' debut book of poetry was published in 2015 by Ampersand Books. The collection explores

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's love life, theorizing that the Dark Lady in his sonnets was a woman of African descent. In a review for the ''

Nashville Scene ''Nashville Scene'' is an alternative newsweekly in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1989, became a part of Village Voice Media in 1999, and later joined the ranks of sixteen other publications after a merger of Village Voice Media with ...

'', Erica Wright stated that the collection "does so with such grit, music and honesty that readers will find themselves rooting for the poet's theory — that Shakespeare once had a black lover and immortalized her in verse — to be true." ''Lucy Negro, Redux'' was adapted as a ballet by Nashville Ballet.

''Attitude: Lucy Negro Redux''

''Lucy Negro, Redux'' has been adapted as a ballet titled ''Attitude: Lucy Negro Redux'', choreographed by Paul Vasterling. It was premiered by the Nashville Ballet at the Polk Theater of the

Tennessee Performing Arts Center The Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) is located in the James K. Polk Cultural Center at 505 Deaderick Street in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. It occupies a city block between 5th and 6th Avenues North and Deaderick and Union Streets. ...

on February 8, 2019. Kayla Rowser danced the role of Lucy and

Rhiannon Giddens Rhiannon Giddens (born February 21, 1977) is an American musician known for her eclectic folk music. She is a founding member of the country, blues, and old-time music band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she was the lead singer, fiddle pl ...

scored and performed the music.

''The Diary of B. B. Bright, Possible Princess''

Co-written by Williams and Randall, the book was published by

Turner Publishing Company Turner Publishing Company is an American independent book publisher based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company is in the top 101 independent publishing companies in the U.S. as compiled by Bookmarket.com, and has been named four times to ''Pub ...

in 2012. According to the publisher, the middle-grade fantasy book is the tale of one young woman's adventure to pass her Official Princess Test, discover a means of escape from her island, and reveal her true destiny. The book received the following accolades: The

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

for Youth Literature, 2013 (nomination),

Cybils Award The Cybils Awards, or Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, are a set of annual book awards given by people who blog about children's and young adult books. Co-founded by Kelly Herold and Anne Boles Levy in 2006, the awards were c ...

in Middle Grade Fantasy, 2012 (nomination) and the

Harlem Book Fair The Harlem Book Fair is the United States' largest African-American book fair and the nation’s flagship Black literary event. Held annually in Harlem, New York, the Harlem Book Fair features exhibition booths, panel discussions, book sales, an ...

's Phillis Wheatley Award for Young Adult Readers, 2013 (winner).

Essays

''New York Times'' opinion piece

In 2020, amidst the national discussions around removing statues of Confederate generals and renaming of U.S. military bases, Williams wrote an opinion piece for the ''New York Times'', titled "You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is A Confederate Monument." She argued for the removal of Confederate monuments, using her existence and family history to make her point. In that essay, she stated, "modern DNA testing has allowed me to confirm, I am the descendant of black women who were domestic servants and white men who raped their help." She opened the piece by writing: "I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South."

Bibliography

* * *

References

MusicBrainz MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the CDDB, Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Caroline Randall 21st-century American novelists African-American women writers American women novelists Fisk University faculty Harvard University alumni Living people Writers from Nashville, Tennessee 1987 births 21st-century American women writers Novelists from Tennessee American cookbook writers American women food writers 21st-century American poets African-American poets West Virginia University faculty University of Mississippi alumni Vanderbilt University faculty American women academics African-American novelists