Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams is the author of Flatlands (Black Lawrence Press, 2018), a full-length collection of poetry, as well as two poetry chapbooks,  Nursewfiery (Jacar Press, 2019) and Conveyance (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). Her poetry has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, jubilat, Pleiades, and Third Coast among others. She has also published creative nonfiction in Crab Orchard Review, DIAGRAM, and Entropy.

Ruth’s scholarly work on women’s writing  and feminism appears in Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, The Journal of Popular Culture,  Michigan Feminist Studies, College Literature, and The Writer’s Chronicle.  In 2011-2012, she was a Fulbright scholar in Seoul, South Korea where she researched U.S.-Korea relations and interviewed Korean women poets Kim Hyesoon, Jeongrye Choi, and Kim Seung-hee.

Ruth holds a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry from Eastern Washington University; currently, she is an Associate Professor of English at William Jewell College where she teaches workshops in poetry and creative nonfiction as well as courses in American, women’s, and ethnic literature.

Here’s what Ruth had to say about Eastern’s MFA program:

“At EWU, I learned how to work, really work, on my writing. In using the word ‘work,’ this isn’t to suggest that the activity was without pleasure, but to suggest that receiving feedback in workshop, revising, and risking failure were all necessary steps in a process that required dedication. Being in an environment where this work and its products were taken seriously by students and teachers alike was not only inspiring, it also validated my love of writing and my belief in literature’s power. Additionally, working on Willow Springs and at EWU Press gave me the experience of viewing creative writing ‘from the other side,’ learning how editors make their selections, an awareness that has certainly helped me as I continue to pursue publication. Now that I’m a teacher of creative writing, I can see ways my own workshops have been shaped by my teachers and peers at EWU, so in that sense, the ‘work’ of my time in the MFA program goes on.”

Check out more of her work at www.ruthcwilliams.com.