Diane Williams (author)
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Diane Williams (born 1946) is an American author, primarily of short stories. She lives in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
and is the founder and editor of the literary annual ''
NOON Noon (also known as noontime or midday) is 12 o'clock in the daytime. It is written as 12 noon, 12:00 m. (for '' meridiem'', literally 12:00 midday), 12 p.m. (for ''post meridiem'', literally "after midday"), 12 pm, or 12:00 (using a 24-hour cl ...
''. She is the author of eleven books, including ''How High? — That High'' (
Soho Press Soho Press is a New York City-based publisher founded by Juris Jurjevics and Laura Hruska in 1986 and currently headed by Bronwen Hruska. It specializes in literary fiction and international crime series. Other works include published by it inclu ...
, 2021), for which she wa
interviewed by Merve Emre
in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
''. Her book ''The Collected Stories of Diane Williams'' was published by
Soho Press Soho Press is a New York City-based publisher founded by Juris Jurjevics and Laura Hruska in 1986 and currently headed by Bronwen Hruska. It specializes in literary fiction and international crime series. Other works include published by it inclu ...
in 2018.


Life

Williams taught at
Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...
,
Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
and The Center for Fiction in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.


Career

A profile of Williams appeared in ''The New York Times'' in 2018, coincident with the publication of ''The Collected Stories of Diane Williams''. Rumaan Alam wrote: "Erudite, elegant and stubbornly experimental. For any writer, an omnibus collection is a triumph. To see years of Ms. Williams’ confounding fictions collected in so hefty a volume is like seeing snowflakes accrue into an avalanche." Elsewhere, Williams' collected works was featured in ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
'', where
Merve Emre Merve Emre is a Turkish-American author, academic, and literary critic. She is the author of nonfiction books ''Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America'' (2017) and ''The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs ...
wrote: " illiams'stories court laughter first, then, and only in retrospect, long-accumulated tears: tears of regret for opportunities lost, for people mislaid; tears of despair for the strangeness, the separateness that intimacy reveals and fails to overcome. You don't have to read all three hundred and five stories to get the point (Though you should. Williams can do more with two sentences than most writers can do with two hundred pages)." Maggie Doherty in ''The New Republic'' said, "Diane Williams seeks to stun, in something near the literal sense of the word . . . There are no first sentences full of orienting details, no dramatic dialogue, no neat epiphanies in a story's final lines. A concluding sentence is more likely to open up a story than to resolve it." In ''The Paris Review'' Williams was referred to as "the godmother of flash fiction." ''Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine'' was published by
McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American nonprofit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. The executive director is Amanda Uhle. McSweeney's first publication was the literary journal'' Timothy McSw ...
in 2016.
The Millions ''The Millions'' is an online literary magazine created by C. Max Magee in 2003. It contains articles about literary topics and book reviews. ''The Millions'' has several regular contributors as well as frequent guest appearances by literary no ...
and
Flavorwire ''Flavorwire'' was a New York City-based online culture magazine. The site includes original feature articles, interviews, reviews, as well as content recycled from other sources. ''Flavorwire'' describes themselves as "a network of culturally ...
listed it as one of the most anticipated books of 2016, and it received a
starred review A starred review is a book review marked with a star to denote a book of distinction or particularly high quality. A starred review can help to increase media coverage, bookstore placement and sales of a book. Outlets that published starred review ...
from
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
. Her book, ''Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty,'' was published by
McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American nonprofit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. The executive director is Amanda Uhle. McSweeney's first publication was the literary journal'' Timothy McSw ...
in January 2012. ''The Boston Globe'' said "Vicky Swanky' is Williams at her best, shaking us awake again to the persistent strangeness of human life." ''Vanity Fair'' wrote "The shorts in Diane Williams' ''Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty'' emit an unsettling brilliance, becoming, on repeated readings, even stranger and more revelatory." Ben Marcus says of this work: "The uncanny has met its ideal delivery system: the stories of Diane Williams." Her 2007 collection, ''It Was Like My Trying to Have a Tender-Hearted Nature,'' was released by
Fiction Collective Two Fiction Collective Two (FC2) is an author-run, not-for-profit publisher of avant-garde, experimental fiction supported in part by the University of Utah, the University of Alabama Press, Central Michigan University, Illinois State University, pri ...
. In 2001,
Dalkey Dalkey ( ; ) is a village in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county southeast of Dublin, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement and became a port in the Middle Ages. According to chronicler John Clyn (c.1286–c.1349), it was one of the port ...
published ''Romancer Erector'': "Crafty, screwball, profound describes Diane Williams's ''Romancer Erector'' a trio of novellas and dozens of short stories featuring playful titles like 'I Freshly Fleshly'". In 2012, ''Romancer Erector'' was translated into the Swedish by Niclas Nilsson as ''Romantikus Erector,'' and published by Orosdi-Back. Torbjorn Elensky comments i
''Ord & Bild'', Number 4: 2012
that "Anyone who writes or who is interested in prose as an art form should spend some time with her work. But even if you don't write, you should read her. The only thing you risk is that much of the supposedly poetic prose being published these days will seem flat after a few rounds with Diane Williams. Her books have been reviewed in many publications, including the ''New York Times Book Review'' ("An operation worthy of a master spy, a double agent in the house of fiction") and ''The Los Angeles Times'' ("One of America's most exciting violators of habit is ianeWilliams…the extremity that Williams depicts and the extremity of the depiction evoke something akin to the pity and fear that the great writers of antiquity considered central to literature. Her stories, by removing you from ordinary literary experience, place you more deeply in ordinary life. 'Isn't ordinary life strange?' they ask, and in so asking, they revivify and console.”)
Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'' drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a Jame ...
describes her as "one of the true living heroes of the American avant-garde. Her fiction makes very familiar things very, very weird."
Ben Marcus Ben Marcus (born October 11, 1967) is an American author and professor at Columbia University. He has written four books of fiction. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in publications including ''Harper's'', ''The New Yorker'', ''The ...
suggested that her "outrageous and ferociously strange stories test the limits of behavior, of manners, of language, and mark Diane Williams as a startlingly original writer worthy of our closest attention." Williams was the publisher and co-editor of ''
StoryQuarterly ''StoryQuarterly'' is an American literary journal based at Rutgers University–Camden in Camden, New Jersey. It was founded in 1975 by Tom Bracken, F.R. Katz, Pamela Painter and Thalia Selz. Works originally published in ''StoryQuarterly'' ha ...
'' from 1985 to 1997. She has been the publisher and founding editor of ''
NOON Noon (also known as noontime or midday) is 12 o'clock in the daytime. It is written as 12 noon, 12:00 m. (for '' meridiem'', literally 12:00 midday), 12 p.m. (for ''post meridiem'', literally "after midday"), 12 pm, or 12:00 (using a 24-hour cl ...
'' since 2000. In January 2016, Rachel Syme of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' described it as "a beautiful annual that remains staunchly avant-garde in its commitment to work that is oblique, enigmatic and impossible to ignore. . .stories that leave a flashbulb's glow behind the eyes even as they resist sense." On October 30, 2009, ''The Times Literary Supplement'' reviewed ''NOON'' in its Learned Journals. Alison Kelly wrote,


Books

* ''This Is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate'' (Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). * ''Some Sexual Success Stories Plus Other Stories in Which God Might Choose to Appear'' (Grove Weidenfeld, 1992) * ''The Stupefaction'' (
Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...
, 1996) * ''Excitability: Selected Stories'' (Dalkey Archive Press, 1998) * ''Romancer Erector'' (Dalkey Archive Press, 2001) , * ''It Was Like My Trying to Have a Tender-Hearted Nature: A Novella and Stories'' (
FC2 FC2 can refer to: * FC2 (portal), a popular Japanese Internet content portal * FC2: an EEG electrode site according to the 10-20 system * The nitrile version of the female condom, introduced in 2005 * Fire Controlman Second Class, a rating in the ...
, 2007). * ''Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty'' (McSweeney's, 2012) * ''Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine'' (McSweeney's, 2016) , * ''The Collected Stories of Diane Williams'' (Soho Press, 2018) , ; includes stories from the above volumes and 16 newer stories *''How High? — That High'' (Soho Press, 2021) ISBN 9781641293068 * ''I Hear You're Rich'' (Soho Press, 2023) ISBN 1641294787


Short fiction


References


External links


"Diane Williams Will Never Be Dutiful"
- Interview with Merve Emre for ''The New Yorker'' (10-10-2021). * *
Interview at HTMLGIANT

"Religious Behavior" and "Angus Was So Near"
- stories in
Triple Canopy (online magazine) Triple Canopy is a New York-based "magazine" and 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Issues of the "magazine" are published online over the course of several months. Each issue focuses on specific questions and areas of con ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Diane 21st-century American women writers 1946 births American short story writers American women short story writers Living people Writers from New York City