Michael E. Williams was born in Murray, Kentucky and has spent most of his life in Tennessee. He was educated at Vanderbilt University, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and holds a PhD from Northwestern University. Michael is a United Methodist pastor, who has lectured at Princeton Theological Seminary, Emmanuel College of The University of Toronto, Morehead State University, and at a number of other colleges and universities. He has been a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, has taught workshops on writing and storytelling across the country and has been publishing for over four decades. He is the author or editor of twenty non-fiction books, and has written three plays that have been produced. His poetry has appeared in The Southern Poetry Review, Appalachian Heritage, Southern Humanities Review, Cold Mountain Review, Still, The Pikeville Review, and other journals. While he was a student a collection of his poems was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize at Northwestern University. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee where he serves as Senior Pastor of West End United Methodist Church.
