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Joy Williams (born February 11, 1944) is an American novelist, short-story writer, and essayist. Best-known for her short fiction, she is also the author of novels including ''State of Grace, The Quick and the Dead,'' and ''Harrow.'' Williams has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, a
Rea Award for the Short Story The Rea Award for the Short Story is an annual award given to a living United States, American or Canada, Canadian author chosen for unusually significant contributions to short story fiction. The Award The Rea Award is named after Michael M. Rea ...
, a Kirkus Award for Fiction, and a
Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction (formerly the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction and Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for the Writing of Fiction) is an annual book award presented by the Librarian ...
.


Early life and education

Williams was born in
Chelmsford, Massachusetts Chelmsford () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Chelmsford was incorporated in May 1655 by an act of the Massachusetts General Court. When Chelmsford was incorporated, its local economy was fueled by lumber mills, ...
. She grew up in Maine and was an only child. Her father was a Congregational minister with a church in Portland, Maine, and her grandfather was a Welsh Baptist minister. She received a BA from
Marietta College Marietta College (MC) is a private liberal arts college in Marietta, Ohio, United States. Its campus encompasses approximately six city blocks next to downtown Marietta and enrolls 1,200 students. History Marietta College began as the Muskin ...
and a MFA from the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
. At Iowa, Williams studied alongside
Raymond Carver Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. He published his first collection of stories, '' Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?'', in 1976. His breakout collection, '' What We Talk About ...
, Ronald Verlin Cassill, Vance Bourjaily, and Richard Yates. After graduating from Iowa, she married and moved to Florida, where she had a dog, a beach, and a Jaguar XK150. She wrote her first novel, ''State of Grace''. Williams has taught creative writing at the
University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...
, the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
, the University of Iowa, and the
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...
. For the 2008-09 academic year, Williams was the writer-in-residence at the University of Wyoming, and she continued thereafter as an affiliated faculty member of the English department. She lives in
Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...
,
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
, and
Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...
. Williams was married for 34 years to Rust Hills, fiction editor for ''
Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...
'', until his death on August 12, 2008.


Work

Williams is the author of five novels. Her first novel, ''State of Grace'' (1973), was nominated for a
National Book Award for Fiction The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987, the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, bu ...
, and her fourth novel, ''The Quick and the Dead'' (2002), was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...
. Her first collection of
short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
, ''Taking Care'', was published in 1982. A second collection, ''Escapes'', followed in 1990. A 2001
essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...
collection, ''Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals'', was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. ''Honored Guest,'' a collection of short stories, was published in 2004. A 30th anniversary reprint of ''The Changeling'' was issued in 2008 with an introduction by the American novelist
Rick Moody Hiram Frederick Moody III (born October 18, 1961) is an American novelist and short story writer best known for the 1994 novel '' The Ice Storm'', a chronicle of the dissolution of two suburban Connecticut families over Thanksgiving weekend in 1 ...
. The book was also republished in 2018 to celebrate 40 years from its original publication. Her most recent novel, ''Harrow'', was published in September 2021. Williams's stories and essays are frequently anthologized, and she has received many awards and honors, including the Harold and Mildred Strauss Living Award from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...
and the
Rea Award for the Short Story The Rea Award for the Short Story is an annual award given to a living United States, American or Canada, Canadian author chosen for unusually significant contributions to short story fiction. The Award The Rea Award is named after Michael M. Rea ...
. In 2008, she was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2021, she received the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. Williams's fiction often portrays life as a downward spiral, addressing various forms of failure in the USA from spiritual, ecological, and economic perspectives. Her characters, generally from the
middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...
, frequently fall from it, at times in bizarre fashion, in a form of cultural dispossession. Williams's adult characters are usually divorced, her children are abandoned, and their lives are consumed with fear, often irrational, such as the little girl in the story "The Excursion", who is terrified that birds will fly out of her toilet bowl. The critic Rosellen Brown has characterized the figures in Williams's work as seeming to be "born spiritually on the lam, living their clammy lives in a watery, vegetation-laden, untended-feeling place ... in ineffective shade." Critics have also said her work has elements of both
minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...
and the Gothic. In an introductory note in 1995's edition of ''Best American Short Stories'', Williams wrote: "All art is about nothingness: our apprehension of it, our fear of it, its approach." Williams is especially noted for her writing on the environment. In addition to her work ''Ill Nature'', she is the author of a guidebook to the
Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami a ...
, which
Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Nast (businessman), Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the FiDi, Financial Dis ...
called "one of the best guidebooks ever written" and "a magnificent, tragicomic guide."


Bibliography


Novels

* ''State of Grace'' (1973) * ''The Changeling'' (1978) *''
Breaking and Entering Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal offence. Usually ...
'' (1988) *''The Quick and the Dead'' (2000) * '' Harrow'' (2021)


Short fiction

;Collections * ''Taking Care'' (1982) * ''Escapes'' (1990) * ''Honored Guest'' (2004) * ''The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories'' (2015) * ''99 Stories of God'' (2016) * ''Concerning the Future of Souls'' (2024) ;


Nonfiction

* ''Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals'' (essays) (2001) * ''The Florida Keys: A History & Guide'', illustrated by Robert Carawan (Tenth Edition) (2003) ;


Notes


References

* ''The Writer's Almanac: Saturday, 11 February 2006'' by Garrison Keillor. ''The Writer's Almanac'' from American Public Media (February 2006). Retrieved on 2007 April 12. *
Joy Williams, Winner 1999
ress release undated. ''www.ReaAward.org'' Retrieved on 2015 August 8. * Bradley, Jane. Blanche H. Gelfant Editor. Lawrence Graver Assistant Editor
''The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story''.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. * Brown, Rosellen. �
Rosellen Brown Discovers Joy Williams
” ''The Women's Review of Books'', vol. 16, no. 10/11, 1999, pp. 33–33. * Szalay, Edina. �
BREAKING INTO THE HOUSE OF DEATH AND LOVE : THE GOTHIC AS SUBTEXT IN A MINIMALIST NOVEL
(JOY WILLIAMS' ‘BREAKING & ENTERING’).” ''Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS''), vol. 4, no. 1/2, 1998, pp. 285–298. www.jstor.org/stable/41274011. * Thompson, James R. "Carolyn Chute and Joy Williams: Alternate Voices of Rage and Curious Dismay," in ''Constructing the Eighties: Versions of an American Decade'', eds. Walter Grunzweig, Roberta Maierhofer, & Adolf Wimmer. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1992.


External links



profile (2015) "The Misanthropic Genius of Joy Williams"
The Art Of Fiction
interview (2014) {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Joy 1944 births Living people 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers American women academics American women essayists American women novelists American women short story writers Harper's Magazine people Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Kirkus Prize winners Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Novelists from Arizona Novelists from Florida Novelists from Iowa PEN/Malamud Award winners People from Chelmsford, Massachusetts University of Arizona faculty University of Florida faculty University of Iowa alumni University of Iowa faculty