Born in 1952 in New Haven, Connecticut, she was educated at the University of Connecticut (B.S., 1974) and Southern Connecticut State University (M.S., 1977). She was a teacher of the deaf in Connecticut from 1977-80 and a Peace Corps teacher of English in Malawi from 1980-83. From 1990-93 she lived and worked in Deschapelles, Haiti, where her husband Steve was a doctor at the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer.

Williams teaches literature and writing in the Chatham University Master of Fine Arts Program in Children’s and Adolescent Writing.

Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2002. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000106578.