The UC Berkeley Department of English is delighted to announce that celebrated author Joy Williams will deliver the annual 2025 lecture in the Bedri Distinguished Writers series on Thursday, April 17th, at 5 PM in The Maude Fife Room (Wheeler 315).
Joy Williams is the author of five novels–including The Quick and the Dead, a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize–and six collections of stories, as well as Ill Nature, a book of essays that was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Among her many honors are the Rea Award for the Short Story and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was elected to the Academy in 2008. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, and Laramie, Wyoming.
The Bedri Distinguished Writers Series is made possible by a generous gift from Dr. Jonathan Bedri.
The Bedri Distinguished Writer Series was created to provide funds for the Department of English to bring contemporary writers working in narrative fiction or creative nonfiction to the Berkeley campus annually for a short stay. Nominees for the program are chosen from the finalists or winners of the Nobel, Pulitzer, National Book Critics Circle, Man Booker, or their equivalents. Over a two day visit, invited authors will participate in small setting discussions to be offered in the English Department, and then deliver a keynote talk at a public venue.
The series has two primary goals: a) to stir excitement, reflection and conversation in the Department of English; b) to give all Berkeley students, alumni and community members within the University’s milieu the opportunity to attend the keynote address.
It is hoped the endowment will not only enrich the English Department’s presence on campus, but also contribute to the culture of intellectual curiosity, discovery and growth that has long stamped Berkeley as one of the world’s greatest educational institutions.
JB (BA English Lit, UC Berkeley 1970; MD, U of Maryland, 1974)
