Evan Morgan Williams is the author of three collections of short stories. His latest collection, Stories of the New West, was released in September, 2021, by Main Street Rag Press.

Williams’ first collection, Thorn: Short Stories, won the 2013 Chandra Prize at BkMk Press (University of Missouri-Kansas City). The book received several honors after publication, including a gold medal from the Independent Publishers Book Awards. The book was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize.

"Williams has a facility for getting inside characters and exposing their essential isolation and loneliness." -Kirkus Reviews

"The seductive beauty of these subtle, troubling fictions reflect their author's dreamy, voice-drenched visions of underdog lives." -Al Young, California Poet Laureate and Judge of the 2013 Chandra Prize

In 2018, Williams released a second volume, Canyons | Older Stories, in a limited print run, available privately. This book won a gold medal from the Next Generation Independent Book Awards.

In September of 2021, Williams’ third collection, New Stories of the West, was published by Main Street Rag Press. The collection was chosen for publication by Meagan Lucas, author of Songbirds and Stray Dogs.

In 2024, Williams received an Oregon Literary Fellowship from Literary Arts.

Williams has published over sevent-five stories in such magazines as Witness, Antioch Review, (The) Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and ZYZZYVA. He holds an MFA from the University of Montana, and has taught in a public school for nearly thirty years. He has held a Writers in the Schools residency and three AWP Writer to Writer mentorships. His work was anthologized in Best of the West 5 (Norton), and in MAKE X: A Decade of Literary Art (Featherproof Books). His story in Weber: the Contemporary West earned the magazine's annual prize for best work of fiction.

Williams' work has been featured at the Lane Literary Guild's Windfall Reading Series, the Nye Beach Writers Series, Mountain Writers, Plonk Reading Series, Eastern Oregon University's Ars Poetica Visiting Writer Series, River Road Reading Series, the Hoffman Gallery’s Word & Image show, and Sacramento's Stories on Stage: works of fiction read by actors. He has been the subject of interviews at Whale Road Review, Late Night Library, Farsickness Journal, Antioch Review, The Fourth River, and elsewhere. He has guested on the podcasts Short Story Today, Now Appalachia, Downtown Writers Jam, and Wednesday Night Series.

Williams is currently at work on a novel.

Inquiries welcome at evan.morgan.williams@gmail.com

Interviews