John A. Williams

“…arguably the finest African-American novelist of his generation.”

John A. Williams is a Top 30 AALBC.com Bestselling Author Making Our List 10 Times

John Alfred Williams
Source: Generations in Black & White

John Alfred Williams (December 5, 1925 – July 3, 2015) was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1925. He earned a degree in English and Journalism from Syracuse University in 1950 (after service in the navy). After the publication of The Angry Ones in 1960, when he was 35, John A. Williams went on to have a distinguished literary career, including the publication of his second novel Sissie, and the classic 1967 bestseller, The Man Who Cried I Am.

Williams professional career included teaching at the College of the Virgin Islands, the City College of New York, Sarah Lawrence College and was a professor of English at Rutgers University of the Virgin Islands, the City College of New York, Sarah Lawrence College and he was a professor of English at Rutgers University.

Williams received the Syracuse University Centennial Medal for Outstanding Achievement. He is also a member of the Nation Institute of Arts and Letters. Williams also won the 1998 American Book Award for Safari West. Williams has written about 21 fiction and non-fiction books.

Williams wrote a terrific article, back in 1963, “Negro in Literature Today” for Ebony Magazine.

John A. Williams on a panel with Troy Johnson

Williams was truly a friend of AALBC (pictured with AALBC’s Founder, Troy Johnson)

Williams retired in 1994 from Rutgers University, where he was Paul Robeson Professor of English. He lived in Teaneck, N.J., with his wife, Lori. He has three sons, Gregory, a pharmaceutical executive in Philadelphia; Dennis, an author and administrator at Georgetown University; and Adam, the guitarist for the rock group Powerman 5000. Williams passed on July 3, 2015, at the age of 89, from complications due to Alzheimer’s disease