Poet, educator, and literary critic Tyrone Williams was born on February 24, 1954, in Detroit, MI. Born into a working-class family, his father worked in the auto industry at three plants: Chrysler, Ford, and GM, and his mother worked as both a housecleaner at a home for retired women and in the public schools (1). His mother encouraged him and supported him in his creative endeavors at a very young age—whether that included cutting up issues of Highlights, playing music, or writing poetry (2). He attended Durfee Junior High School where, at 13, his love of poetry and storytelling flourished with the help of his teacher Miss Horn and classmate Anthony Luffboro, two encouraging forces during this period of his life. Growing up in Detroit, adjacent to the Cass Corridor art scene, Williams naturally came to understand early that the possibilities for what art and writing could be were endless (3). His work is as much influenced by the working-class writers of the Midwest such as Bob Hicok, Phil Levine, Jim Daniels as it is by the avant-garde movements in the Cass Corridor. His early influences also come from a vast array of fields and disciplines including Chemistry (specifically subatomic particles), French literature, the music criticism of Creem Magazine, and of course poets including but not limited to the Symbolists, Black Arts Poets, Language Poets, and eventually his contemporaries such as Carl Phillips, Erica Hunt, and Claudia Rankine (among many others).

Williams attended Wayne State University for his BA, MA, and PhD in English, his dissertation was titled The Poetics of Open and Closed Forms. In 1983 he moved to Cincinnati, OH and began teaching at Xavier University in the English Department where he continues to teach to this day. He also continues to contribute literary criticism on several platforms including Jacket2 where he offers unique insights into poetry’s history and evolution and the sung and unsung poets who are important to that narrative.

Williams has published seven books of poetry: c.c. (Krupskaya, 2002), On Spec (Omnidawn, 2008), The Hero Project of the Century (The Backwaters Press, 2009), Howell (Atelos, 2011), Adventures of Pi (Dos Madres, 2011), As Iz (Omnidawn, 2018), and Washpark (Delete Press, 2021), a collaboration with Pat Clifford.

Throughout his career he has continued to publish chapbooks, including Convalescence and Other Poems (Ridgeway Press, 1987), Futures Elections (Dos Madres Press, 2004), AAB (Slack Buddha, 2004), Musique Noir (Overhere Press, 2006), Pink Tie (Hooke Press, 2011), Between Red & Black: Narrative of the Black Brigade (Dos Madres Books, 2016), There is a Misery So Great It Over (Further Other Book Works, 2016), Pow Wow Wer: Truth (Further Other Book Works, 2016), Line 9, Part 1 (Compline, 2020), and an artist book titled Trump L’oiel (Hostile Books, 2017), which consists of 13 lines written separately on crumpled tissues stuffed into a crushed tissue box (edition limited to 52).

He has also edited the poetry anthologies Masterplots II: African American Literature (Salem Press, 2009) and Inciting Poetics: Thinking and Writing Poetry (University of New Mexico Press, 2019).

Notes

1. Wilkinson JM. An Interview with Tyrone Williams. Denver Quarterly. 2008;43(2):96-105.

2. Bernstein, Charles. Tyrone Williams on Close Listening. Jacket 2. February 25, 2017.

3. Lewis, Erica. Our Generation: A Conversation with Tyrone Williams. The Poetry Foundation. July 12, 2017.