About Katherine Williams


Katherine was born into the Navy of white Southern parents and spent her teens and twenties in Charleston SC, where she hung on to literature for dear life. She majored in French at the College of Charleston, learned to surf, screen T-shirts and movies, play the cello, and do science. In 1996 she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked in biomedical research at UCLA, surfed occasionally, and volunteered at Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital.

Katherine began writing the day after an electrifying reading by Luis Alfaro, Jose Montoya, and Marisela Norte perform at Self Help Graphics around 1991. She soon was performing all over town, published two chapbooks with Laguna Poets, and joined Cecilia Woloch’s workhop. After a week in Richard Garcia’s workshop at Idyllwild, she realized she had no idea what a poem is, and started over.

Richard and Katherine were married shortly before the Enron crisis in CA, whereupon they moved to James Island SC. In Charleston they established The Long Table Poets for the study and writing of poems, and joined the board of The Poetry Society of SC. Katherine co-founded the committee that became the James Island Arts and Culture Commission, from there establishing Poetry at McLeod.

Retired now from medical research, she dabbles in environmental science, surfing, website and textile design, art collecting, classical cello, community arts, and the garden. No longer married, she still lives on James Island.

Katherine’s first collection of poems, The Devil Cruises Pacific Coast Highway, is due April 2023 from Kelsay Books. Her second and third manuscripts are in preparation.

Selected Readings


2023
Piccolo Spoleto Sundown Poetry Festival Book signinglaunch at Buxton Books

2020
Carolina Poets Live on Facebook (with jackie Shelton Greene and Quraysh Al-Lansana)

2016
Role of "The Original Swallow" in The Red Bowl by Holaday Mason, Beyond Baroque, Venice CA

2013
Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston SC

2012
Piccolo Spoleto Sundown Poetry Festival, Charleston SC; Loyola Marymount University, Westchester CA

2010
City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Contemporary Charleston

2009
Monday Night Poetry & Music, Charleston SC; Coastal Carolina University, Litchfield, SC; Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach SC; Beyond Baroque, Venice CA (with Frank Gaspar)

2008
Charleston County Library, Charleston SC

2007
Sotto Voce Poetry Festival, Shepherdstown WV

2006
Charleston County Library, Charleston SC

2005
Monday Night Blues, Charleston SC; Callanwolde Arts Center, Atlanta GA; Rhapsodomancy at the Good Luck Bar, Hollywood CA

2004
The Ugly Mug, Orange, CA; Monday Night Blues, Charleston SC; Java Monkey Cafe, Atlanta GA; Village Books, Pacific Palisades CA

2003
Redondo Poets, Redondo Beach CA; Mount San Antonio College, Walnut CA

2002
The Ugly Mug, Orange CA; Sunland-Tujunga Library, Tujunga CA

2001
Valley Contemnporary Poets, Canoga Park CA; Sunland-Tujunga Library, Tujunga CA; Curators’ Choice Gala Reading, Los Angeles Poetry Festival
(with BH Fairchild and Richard Garcia)

2000
Valley Contemporary Poets, North Hollywood Library, CA; Beyond Baroque, Venice CA; KXLU FM 88.9, Loyola Marymount University, Westchester CA

1999
Al’s Bar, Los Angeles CA; Action Space, Los Angeles CA

1998
Galeria Otra Vez, East Los Angeles CA; Laguna Poets, Laguna Beach CA

1996
KXLU FM 88.9, Loyola University, Westchester CA

1995
Midnight Special Books, Santa Monica CA

1994
KXLU FM 88.9, Loyola University, Westchester CA

1993
Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, Venice CA