Evan Morgan Williams' collection of stories, "Thorn," won the G.S Sharat Chandra Prize from BkMk Press (University of Missouri at Kansas City). The book was longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Also, it was a finalist for the ForeWord Review IndieFab Award. Lastly, the book won the 2016 IPPY gold medal for outstanding short-story collection. Williams has published over forty short stories in literary magazines famous and obscure, including Witness, The Kenyon Review, Zyzzyva, Alaska Quarterly Review, and, well, you get the idea. Nine of his stories have been nominated for, but did not win, a Pushcart Prize. A public school teacher for 22 years, he holds an MFA, tattered and faded, from the University of Montana. His students see it on his classroom wall and say, "Huh?", and some days he does too. Most recently, Williams held a Writers in the Schools residency, an AWP Writer to Writer mentorship, and he gave the inaugural reading in Eastern Oregon University's revived Ars Poetica Visiting Writer Series. Williams has studied writing with the best of them, Kim Stafford, Kent Nelson, Leonard Robinson, Joanne Meschery, Melissa Madenski, Bill Kittredge, and Anthony Doerr, but Portland local Martha Gies stands above them all. Not having taken an academic path, Williams welcome inquiries from benefactors, patrons, sponsors, underwriters, and shoe companies seeking his endorsement. Product placement? He'd think about it.
Send questions, comments and corrections to info@creativewritingmfa.info.
Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology.