Acclaimed Poet Miller Williams Publishes First Book Of Fiction

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Miller Williams, acclaimed poet and University of Arkansas professor, will publish his first book of fiction on Sept. 30 at the age of 72.

In a career of verse-writing that has spanned five decades and garnered international awards and praise - not to mention an appearance as Bill Clinton’s second inaugural poet - Williams decided to try something new. His book, "The Lives of Kelvin Fletcher: Stories Mostly Short," hits the shelves next week, published by the University of Georgia Press.

"Most writers don’t go on publishing books after the age of about 60. But here I am at 72, putting out my first book of fiction," Williams mused. "I guess that shows an immaturity on my part."

Celebrated for the simple, resonant language he employs in his poetry, Williams now offers readers an opportunity to see that evocative simplicity stretched across the page. In "Kelvin Fletcher," Williams manages to leap from the suggestiveness of poetry to the narration of storytelling without losing his lyricism. His characters and plotlines are thoroughly filled in and fleshed out, but the observations within remain as deftly sketched and penetrating as a sharp-honed line of poetry.

Though the book consists of seven short stories and a capstone novella - any of which could be read as a complete and independent work - a single protagonist links the stories together into the sequences of a life. At the beginning, we find Kelvin Fletcher, age 10, struggling to grow up in small-town Arkansas. The stories follow his life over the next decade, through puberty and adolescence, through faith, envy, lust and rage to an unsteady grip on both manhood and salvation.

Throughout these stories, Williams wields remarkable control over the narrative voice, allowing it gradually to mature at the same rate as his protagonist. While the plotlines and character development show Kelvin growing up, the style and tone of the narration enhance the effect - enveloping readers and involving them in his progress, drawing them alongside Kelvin into adulthood.

By the time the narration reaches "Coley’s War," the ending novella, it has become more concentrated and keen. For the first time in the collection, it also shifts from third person into first, allowing the 20-year-old Kelvin to tell his own story and signifying his greater store of self-knowledge and possession.

But the book represents more than a stylistic romp for Williams. Its stories interweave themes of religion and sexuality, friendship and death. In the preface, Williams writes: "Every story is about someone who wants something while someone or something stands for a while or forever in the way. These are about one Kelvin Fletcher.who wanted to be good and wanted to grow up. What stood in the way of either was the other."

Beyond the character of Kelvin, what links these stories together is a question of choices. Raised by devout Christians, Kelvin begins the collection believing in the stark line between right and wrong and in our ability to choose which side of the line we stand on. But by the end of the book Kelvin believes in a different sort of line - the one that pulls us forward into our lives, whether we want to follow or not.

"I’m not sure now that we make any choices," Kelvin confesses in the novella. "Who I am determines what I do, and then what I do determines what I become, which determines what I do. People get PhDs out of crap like that..

"I guess it’s better that we think we make choices," he finally concedes. "Otherwise everything just stops."

"He’s toying with an idea, an idea that’s been bothering him throughout the collection but which he keeps having to face on greater and greater levels of complexity," Williams explained. "And that idea is that living our lives may be much like reading a story. You just go along to find out where it ends up, which of the conflicting forces wins out."

Williams, himself, cannot say whether writing this collection was an altogether conscious choice. He simply found himself writing and in the process become more and more intrigued with Kelvin’s life, more compelled to tell his stories. Even with the completion and publication of this book, he hints that there may be more to say about Kelvin, more stories yet to be written.

But while Williams finds fiction a difficult and rewarding diversion, readers who have cherished his poetry over the past several decades will be relieved to know that he intends to continue writing verse.

"I truly don’t know why I’ve carried on so long, but I certainly don’t feel that I’m finished yet," he said. "One thing I like about my life is that I have no idea what I’m going to do tomorrow."

No need to fear, though. "The Lives of Kelvin Fletcher" proves that in living - as in reading a good story - the one thing you can’t do is stop.