Ian Williams

Professor; Director of the M.A. in English in the Field of Creative Writing; Graduate Faculty; Undergraduate Instructor
Jackman Humanities Building, Room 730, 170 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5R 2M8

Campus

Fields of Study

Areas of Interest

  • Creative Writing
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Creative Nonfiction
  • Black Studies

Biography

Ian Williams is the author of six acclaimed books, including Disorientation, an essay collection on race, selected as a best book of the year by the Boston Globe. His poetry collection, Word Problems, considers the ethical and political issues of our time as math and grammar problems. His novel, Reproduction, won of the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize and longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award for the best work of global fiction. Reproduction was published in Canada, the US, and the UK, and translated into Italian.

His poetry collection, Personals, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award. His short story collection, Not Anyone's Anything, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best first collection of short fiction in Canada. His first book, You Know Who You Are, was a finalist for the ReLit Poetry Prize. CBC named him as one of ten Canadian writers to watch. He is a trustee for the Griffin Poetry Prize. Professor Williams formerly taught poetry in the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia and was Canadian Writer-in-Residence for the University of Calgary's Distinguished Writers Program.

Professor Williams formerly taught poetry in the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia. and was Canadian Writer-in-Residence for the University of Calgary's Distinguished Writers Program.

Publications

Books

Disorientation. Essays. Toronto, Random House, 2021.
Shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize in Nonfiction.
Shortlisted for the BC/Yukon Nonfiction Book Prize, Hubert Evans Prize.
A Boston Globe best book of the year.

Word Problems. Poems. Toronto, Coach House, 2020.
Winner for the Raymond Souster Award, 2021.
Finalist for the ReLit Poetry Award, 2021.
A CBC Best Book of Poetry, 2020.

Reproduction. Novel. Toronto: Random House, 2019.
Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, 2019.
Longlisted for Dublin Literary Award for the best work of global fiction among 49 writers from 30 countries.
Finalist for the Toronto Book Award
Finalist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, 2019.
Foreign editions and translations:
US Edition. New York: Europa, 2020.
UK Edition: Dialogue Books, an imprint of Little, Brown, 2020.
Italy: Keller Editore, forthcoming in fall 2021.
World English audio: Audible

Personals. Poems. Calgary: Freehand Books, 2012.
Shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize.
Shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award.
Shortlisted for the ReLit Poetry Award
Winner of the 2013 Alberta Book Cover/Jacket Design Award

Not Anyone's Anything. Short stories. Calgary: Freehand Books, 2011.
Winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, $10 000.

You Know Who You Are. Poems. Hamilton: Wolsak and Wynn, 2010.
Shortlisted for the ReLit Award (2011).

Education

BSc, University of Toronto
MA, University of Toronto
PhD, University of Toronto

Administrative Service

Director, MA in English in the Field of Creative Writing.