photo by Klaus Meyer

​Derek JG Williams is an American writer-scholar. His debut collection of poems, Reading Water (2025), was selected by Eduardo Corral as the winner of the Lightscatter Press Prize. He is also the author of Poetry Is a Disease (Greying Ghost, 2022), a nonfiction work on the genesis of artistic practice. Derek holds a doctorate in English & Creative Writing from Ohio University, & an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he won the Brian Rattigan & Mary Doyle Curran Creative Scholarships. He is a Blacksmith House Emerging Writer. His poem, "These Kingdoms of Ours" was a finalist for RHINO Magazine's Editors Prize. Brenda Shaughnessy selected his poem “Ode to the Tongue” for inclusion in the Best New Poets anthology. His writing has appeared on Boston's MBTA trains as a part of the city's Poetry on the T program. Derek teaches writing courses online. He also works with individual clients to help them establish & reach their writing goals, & he is a communications expert & technical writer who has worked with scholars & researchers at numerous institutions & universities. He lives near Zurich with his family.