Featured Interview With Clifford Williams
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in a tiny town northwest of Chicago–Fox River Grove. I went to Wheaton College in Illinois and then to Indiana University for a Ph.D. in philosophy.
I taught philosophy for fifty years at various colleges and am the author of fifteen academic and non-academic books, including two other interview books: One More Train to Ride: The Underground World of Modern American Hoboes (2003) and Choosing to Live: Stories of Those Who Stepped Away from Suicide (2017).
In addition to teaching standard philosophy courses, I also taught courses titled, Love and Friendship, Death and the Meaning of Life, and Emotions.
Now I live in Wheaton, Illinois, where I spend time reading, going on walks, and occasionally going to barn dances.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I picked up a fascination with books in grade school, partly because I am an introvert and like to be alone. I picked up the urge to write during graduate school, where a premium was put on writing one's own philosophy. So in addition to teaching philosophy to college students, I spent evenings, Saturday mornings, and summers at first with a pen and a clipboard in my lap and then standing at a computer. Computers are nice for revisions, because you always have a clean copy on the screen instead of paper that is filled with messy markings.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love these books:
Fiction:
Anna Karenina and the Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Middlemarch by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
J. R. R. Tolkien's trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King
C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces, plus his trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength
Nonfiction:
Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing by Soren Kierkegaard
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by James M. Washington
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Death Row Saved My Life and Other Stories: Finding Meaning in a Harsh World contains thirty-one stories of people who fought their way through trauma, told in their own words. I interviewed the people, mostly via video calls, then edited the transcriptions of the interviews into readable and engaging stories.
I found most of the people I interviewed when my ears perked up as I was listening to friends on video calls. I asked whether I could interview them. After interviewing them, I asked whether they knew of others who had a story. Some did. I interviewed those others and asked the same question. That resulted in interviews with friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends.
The stories deal with a wide array of difficult situations: heroin addiction, being gay in a straight culture, being burned in a flash fire, having ADHD, arriving in the U.S. from a refugee camp, having strong suicidal impulses, being the recipient of domestic violence, experiencing the death of one’s infant son, and many more. Each story describes the difficult situation in detail and the process by which it was overcome. The stories are grouped into four sections: death, family, hurdles, and transitions, which represent the four major themes of the book.
Each story contains drama, some of it intense. How will Jenni escape from the empty truck in which she is locked (Escaping My Heroin Addiction)? What will Ellen find when she opens the door to the apartment in which she and her husband live (Found Dead)? Will Bobby ever admit to himself that he is gay (Growing Up Gay)?
As I was listening to the people tell their stories, I felt the pain of their trauma but also exhilaration when they recounted how they got beyond their trauma.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Clifford Williams Facebook Page
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