Williams, C(harles) K(enneth)
Born: November 4, 1936, in Newark, New Jersey
Died:
Literary Vocations: Poet, Professor, Memoirist
Geographic Connections to Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Philadelphia County; Lewisburg, Union County

Keywords: Bucknell University, National Book Critics Award, Poet, Princeton University, Pulitzer Prize, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract: C.K. Williams was born in Newark, New Jersey to Paul Bernard and Dossie Williams in 1936. He found his life's calling as a poet while taking a required course in college. He began to write poetry initially with an acidic anti-war theme, but as he aged his content and style changed to long lines and conversational poems that reflected on love, intimacy, aging, and the natural world. Changing style brought Williams accolades and finally a Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2000. Williams now teaches at Princeton and spends part of each year in France.

Biography:

Williams was born to a business man and homemaker during the middle of the Great Depression. After his graduation from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, Williams attended college at Bucknell University, where he played on the basketball team. Realizing that he wanted to do something else with his life, Williams grew tired of playing basketball and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. It was there that he discovered his love for writing poetry while taking a required English class.

According to Williams, “Poetry didn't find me, in the cradle, or anywhere near it: I found it.” Williams graduated from the University of Pennsylvania earning his B.A. in 1959. Williams married Sarah Jones in 1966, but later divorced her in 1975. In 1973, while waiting for a plane in the John F. Kennedy Airport, he met Catherine Mauger. They later married and together they had a son, Jed, who was the subject for several of his better known poems.

The war in Vietnam affected Williams and at the urging of some friends published his first poem “A Day for Ann Frank,” which connected the civil rights movement with the Holocaust. Shortly after, Williams included it as part of his first volume of published poetry titled Lies (1969). His anti-war and protest themed poetry continued in his second volume titled I am a Bitter Name (1972). The poem “In the Heart of the Beast” was written after the deaths of four Vietnam War protesters on the campus of Kent State University. As he grew older, the focus of his poetry shifted from an anti-war theme to American sensibilities and his thoughts on love, death, violence and aging.

Many critics say he found his voice after his first two books; his third book With Ignorance (1977) was where Williams first began to work with long lines and conversational poems. Since then, his style of poetry is often favorably compared to that of Walt Whitman. In 1983 Tar was published. The self titled poem centered on roof workers during the Three-Mile nuclear accident is characteristic of Williams' style:

After half a night of listening to the news, wondering how to know a hundred miles downwind
if and when to make a run for it and where, then a coming bolt awake at seven
when the roofers we've been waiting for since winter sent their ladders shrieking up our wall,
we still know less than nothing: the utility company continues making little of the accident.

Williams became a writing professor at Columbia University and a literature professor at George Mason University, while he continued to write poetry. His trademark style is long lines without conventional rhyme and rhythm. Known as a “political poet” a political commentary underlies the subject matter of his poetry.

Nominated for his first Pulitzer Prize for his book Flesh and Blood (1987) although he didn't win the Pulitzer, he did win the prestigious National Book Critics Award. The Vigil (1997) was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Williams has received the PEN/Voelcker Career Achievement Award and was elected to the American Academy of the Arts and Letters in 2003.

After two previous Pulitzer nominations, Williams won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for his volume of poetry called Repair. Some poems in Repair make use of short lines, contrary to Williams' trademark long lines. The subject of Repair was the healing and forgiving process and Williams successfully blended his style with new subject matter. According the Boston Book Review, “Formally, these new poems mark a departure. Underneath, though, they are driven by the familiar Williams sensibility: intelligent, restless... always wanting to know and understand more... [an] excellent book.” The critics were impressed with Repair, and Williams received solid reviews for this book.

Williams has been teaching a creative writing program at Princeton University since 1996 and divides his time between Paris, France and the United States. He recently won the 2005 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, which is given to a poet “whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition.” Williams is considered to be one of the best American poets of the 20th century.

Works:

Poetry:

• Lies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969.
• I am the Bitter Name. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972.
• With Ignorance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
• Tar. New York: Random House, 1983.
• Flesh and Blood. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1987.
• Dream of Mind. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1992.
• The Vigil. Farrar. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1997.
• Repair. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1999.
• Love About Love. New York: Ausable Press, 2001.
• The Singing. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2003.

Memoirs:

• Misgivings: My Mother, My Father, Myself. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.

Sources:

• “C.K. Williams.” The Academy of American Poets. 19 October 2005. <www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/134>.
• “C.K. Williams.” The Boys Club of New York Writers Series. 17 November 2005. <http://www.bcny.org/ws-2005/writers-series2006-williams.htm>.
• “C.K. Williams Poet.” Blue Flower Arts. 19 October 2005 <http://www.blueflowerarts.com/ckwilliams.html>.
• “C.K. Williams.” The Gale Literary Database: Contemporary Authors. The Gale Group. Thomson Corporation. 2005. 10 November 2005. <www.galenet.com>.
• “C.K. Williams wins Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.” Princeton Weekly Bulletin. 17 November 2005. <http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/05/0502/7a.shtml>.
• “Q&A C.K. Williams.” University of Pennsylvania. 17 November 2005. <http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2000/091400/cover.html>.
• “Winners in Poetry.” The Pulitzer Prizes. 12 November 2005 <www.pulitzer.org/year/2000/poetry/bio>.

This biographical sketch was prepared by Paul L. Anstine II