As a Black woman author working on white violence against African Americans, I’ve had to endure my share of incidents of thoughtlessness and violence when people introduce my work or me (some folks just can’t help themselves). Here’s my preferred bio. And, this is the bio I might need to read if the person introducing me goes off script. This will be awkward and embarrassing, of course, (no more than the violent intro, I assure you). We could avoid this by sticking to the bio. 😁

50 word bio

Kidada E. Williams is the author of I Saw Death Coming (which was Longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction and won the 2024 Organization of American Historians’ Civil War and Reconstruction Book Award) and They Left Great Marks on Me; co-editor of #CharlestonSyllabus; host and co-producer of the “Seizing Freedom” podcast. She is a member of the Society of American Historians and a Professor of History at Wayne State University in Detroit.

80 word bio

Kidada E. Williams studies African American victims and survivors of racist violence. She is the author of I Saw Death Coming (Longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction and winner of the 2024 Organization of American Historians’ Civil War and Reconstruction Book Award) and They Left Great Marks on Me; co-editor of #CharlestonSyllabus; host and co-producer of “Seizing Freedom,” a podcast docudrama that covered the epic story of African Americans’ fight for freedom during the Civil War Era; a member of the Society of American Historians. She is a Professor of History at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Please feel free to use the following images to promote the event.

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