Joy Williams
Novelist
American fiction writer who is best known for her novels, State of Grace (1973) and The Quick and the Dead (2000). She is also the author of several short story collections, including Taking Care (1982) and Escapes (1990).
She graduated from Marietta College and the University of Iowa. After receiving her MFA in Creative Writing, she taught at the University of Houston, the University of Florida, the University of Iowa, and the University of Arizona.
Her novel, The Quick and the Dead, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
She was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. In the 1970s, she married L. Rust Hills, the their Esquire fiction editor.
She was a finalist for the National Book Award, which author Barry Hannah won.