Topic: Miller Williams

Miller Williams (born April 8, 1930) is an American contemporary poet, as well as a translator and editor. He has authored over twenty-five books and won several awards for his poetry. His accomplishments have been chronicled in Arkansas Biography. However, he is perhaps best known for reading a poem at President Clinton's 1997 inauguration.

Williams was born in Hoxie, Arkansas. He was educated in Arkansas, earning his bachelor's degree in biology from Arkansas State University, before completing a M.S. at the University of Arkansas in 1952. He taught in several universities in various capacities, first as a professor of biology and then of English literature. He is currently a professor emeritus of literature at the University of Arkansas. His best-known poem is "The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina," which displays the complicated form beautifully.

Miller received the 1963-64 Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship, and he won the 1991 Poets' Prize for his collection Living on the Surface.