Over the past thirty years, Michael Williams has written a number of strange novels, from the early Weasel’s Luck and Galen Beknighted in the best-selling Dragonlance series to the lyrical and experimental Arcady, singled out for praise by Locus and Asimov’s magazines. His most recent work is the acclaimed City Quartet, centered on a city both realistic and mythical: in Trajan’s Arch, stories fold into stories and a boy grows up with ghostly mentors; Vine: An Urban Legend mingles Greek tragedy and urban legend, as a local dramatic production in a small city goes humorously, then horrifically, awry; Dominic’s Ghosts takes up the story of a son in search of his father in the midst of a murky conspiracy involving a suspicious scholar, a Himalayan legend, and subliminal clues from a silent film festival. Tattered Men is the account of a disheveled biographer, writing the life story of a homeless man who may have been more than he ever seemed.
Williams was born in Louisville, Ky, and spent much of his childhood in the south central part of the state, the red-dirt gothic home of the Appalachian foothills and stories of Confederate guerillas. Through good luck and a roundabout journey he made his way through New England, New York, Wisconsin, Britian, and Ireland, and has ended more or less where he began. He has a Ph.D in Humanities, and taught at the University of Louisville until 2022, where he focused on the Modern Fantastic in fiction and film. He is married to Rhonda Williams and they have two grown sons.
He is currently at work on a long narrative poem set in the world of the City Quartet. Because what’s a quartet without a fifth?
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