Points of Departure: Poems

by Miller Williams

"One of our very finest poets in full stride." -- Harvard Review, on Adjusting to the Light A 1995 recipient of the Academy Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Miller Williams is one of America's best known and loved poets. He also has won the prestigious Poets' Prize; the Amy Lowell Award in Poetry, presented by Harvard University; the Prix de Rome for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and many others. Williams's newest collection is built of the idiom of ordinary speech. Mostly narrative and dramatic, these indelible poems are populated by individuals who go about their lives much as all of us do; in fear of pain and loneliness, in hope of something like love. The breath of Williams's talent gives them life, his honesty and precision make them unforgettable.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Died January 1, 2015.

Miller Williams is an American contemporary poet, as well as a translator and editor. He has authored over 25 books and won several awards for his poetry. His accomplishments have been chronicled in Arkansas Biography. He is perhaps best known for reading his poem "Of History and Hope" at the second inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1997.

Williams was educated in Arkansas, first enrolling at Hendrix College in Conway and eventually transferring to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where he published his first collection of poems, Et Cetera, while getting his bachelor's degree in biology. He went on to get a masters in zoology at the University of Arkansas in 1952.

He taught in several universities in various capacities, first as a professor of biology and then of English literature, and in 1970 returned to the University of Arkansas as a member of the English Department and the creative writing program. In 1980 he helped found the University of Arkansas Press, where he served as director for nearly 20 years. He is currently a professor emeritus of literature at the University of Arkansas.

Williams is the father of Lucinda Williams, a three-time Grammy Award winning country music, folk, and rock singer, named "America's best songwriter" by TIME magazine in 2002.