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  John A. Williams, Librettist

The author of two previous plays, John A. Williams' first libretto is Vanqui. The two-time recipient of the American Book Award (1983, 1998) for literature has also published 13 novels, two of which were made into films, eight nonfiction books, and edited or co-edited 11 others. In the 1960's, Mr. Williams was a correspondent in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Later, as a distinguished professor of journalism and English at the City University of New York and then Rutgers University, from which he retired in 1994, he was cited for excellence in teaching. Mr. Williams has received numerous honors and awards that prove that his has not only been a prolific literary career, but also a significant one. A list of these honors includes, among others, the Richard Wright-Jacques Roumain Award, 1973; a National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1977; a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Award, 1985; and the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award for !Click Song in 1983 and for Safari West, a volume of poetry, in 1998. Also in 1998 he was one of the first inductees into the National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, and two years later he received the Phillis Wheatley Award for Invaluable Contributions to African American Letters and Culture. In 2003, Mr. Williams was awarded with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Rochester.