Imaginarium 2017 is proud to welcome author Michael Williams as a guest. First known to readers through the best-selling DRAGONLANCE series, Michael exemplifies dedication to the craft and art of writing, having expanded his horizons in works such as his lyrical/experimental Arcady (singled out for praise by Locus and Asimov magazines), and his current mythic fiction novels such as Trajan’s Arch and Vine. Teaching at the University of Louisville with a focus on the Modern Fantastic in film and books, Michael is a tremendous workshop presenter and panelist, and we are both honored and thrilled to have him with us this year!
About Michael Williams: Over the past 25 years, Michael Williams has written a number of strange novels, from the early Weasel’s Luck and Galen Beknighted in the best-selling DRAGONLANCE series to the more recent lyrical and experimental Arcady, singled out for praise by Locus and Asimov’s magazines. His most recent books are Trajan’s Arch and Vine, an Urban Legend—novels he characterizes as “mythical realism”: in Trajan’s Arch, stories fold into stories and a boy grows up with ghostly mentors, and Vine mingles Greek tragedy and urban legend, as a local dramatic production in a small city goes humorously, then horrifically, awry.
Williams was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and spent much of his childhood in the south central part of the state, the red-dirt gothic home of Appalachian foothills and legends of Confederate guerrillas. Through good luck and a roundabout journey he made his way through New England, New York, Wisconsin, Britain and Ireland, and has ended up less than thirty miles from where he began. He has a Ph.D. in Humanities, and teaches at the University of Louisville, where he focuses on the the Modern Fantastic in fiction and film. He is married, and has two grown sons.