Em Williamson is a queer nonbinary writer from Mississippi and Kentucky, now living in Chicago for more than a decade. Their fiction has appeared in literary journals like Puerto del Sol, New Delta Review, Typehouse Magazine, among others, and their scholarship appears in the journal Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. Their short story “Terrence’s Birthday” won the 2021 Goodnow Fiction Prize. Their work has received support from Ragdale and has been nominated for an AWP Intro Award and an Illinois Arts Council Award. Their manuscript Palace was a finalist for Sundress Publications’ 2024 Prose Contest and for the 2025 Howling Bird Press Prize. They are a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Illinois Chicago’s Program for Writers. You can reach them at emwilliamsonwriter@gmail.com.