Brian Murray Wiilliams grew up in south Alabama, in an eccentric family of artists, teachers,
chefs, and storytellers. Since graduating from Auburn University, Brian has worked as a yoga
instructor, theater director, and server at several great restaurants in New York City. He currently manages a beloved West Village restaurant.
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Brian writes hopeful stories about queer kids growing up in the south. He loves horror movies, brunch, and loud music. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, who also writes YA.
I was born in a small town in southeast Alabama on one of the five cold days they’ve ever had. The same week as three of my greatest friends and favorite people. I like to imagine we were all lined up next to each other in the hospital. Whether or not that’s true, I have no idea, but it’s kind of cool to think about. We were all born within five days of each other.
All of it. I love a lot of Brit pop and indie rock. I think my partner and I must hold some kind of world record for seeing Belle & Sebastian concerts. I hated country music until I left the south, but now, I really like some of it. I’ve always loved female musicians the most. Billie Holiday, Patsy Cline, Tina Turner, Cher, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Rickie Lee Jones, Tori Amos, Courtney Love, Maria McKee, and Jennifer Nettles are some I've loved forever. Robyn, Chappell Roan, Ethel Cain, Paloma Faith, Jessie Ware, Lana Del Rey, and Taylor Swift are on just about every playlist I make lately. I also really like Sombr, Djo, and The Midnight.
My family was big and eccentric and southern and colorful. I had so many aunts and uncles and cousins when I was a kid. My grandmother knew how to Charleston and had more friends than anyone I’ve ever known. Everyone LOVED her. She and my grandfather owned a company that made gravestones. My grandfather used to take me and my little brother with him to check out the sites where a new marker was going to be placed, and we spent a LOT of time playing in cemeteries when I was a kid.
My dad’s mom loved to fish and was a cutthroat bridge player. My uncle was a chef and theater director who could basically do anything. He acted, sang, and taught English, and he played the organ at our church. He was flamboyant, hilarious, and slightly scary, too.
My mom taught school and was a social worker and is the sweetest person I’ve ever met (although you wouldn’t want to be on her bad side. Trust.) She reads really quickly and when I was a kid it seemed like she’d read two or three novels a week and still find time to read to me every single night. I think that her love of reading made me determined to learn how to read, because it seemed like so much fun. Otherwise, why would she be doing it? I was so determined, I kind of made myself figure it out, and by the first grade, I had a serious book obsession. I made it a goal to read every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys book there was, and I think I got pretty close. I would get a new one every Friday. I probably annoyed my brother because it’s all I did.
My dad is an identical twin. He managed a retail store. My dad really loves music and sports. He has an unexpected sappy side, and I inherited his love of music and his tendency to cry easily in movies. (Seriously, it doesn’t take much at all)
My brother is awesome. He's very fun. Loyal. Cares so much about his family and tradition. We used to have the best time, wandering around in the woods behind our house, hanging out with this family who lived across the street and had five kids of various ages and a POOL. There was a whole crew of neighborhood kids who used to hang out and ride bikes all over the place and it was really cool that my brother and I were often part of the same friend group, as kids, and then later when we were both in college. We used to watch the same five or six movies over and over because they would make us laugh so hard. I remember this one movie called Drop Dead Fred that we couldn't get enough of one summer.
My brother married the funniest woman, who can make me laugh pretty much more than anyone I know.
And they made the most fabulous human, my niece, who is the best of us all, I think.
Every English teacher I had growing up liked my writing. I loved writing stories, but I really wanted to write plays and movies. In high school I figured out I was better at acting in plays than writing them and was lucky enough to get a scholarship in theater and perform a lot. For a long time, I couldn’t imagine anything ever coming between me and my love for acting and later directing. After college and grad school, I moved to New York. I started a small theater company that only produces horror, and we have made some really cool low-budget indie theater.
Yep. My partner, who is a brilliant writer, encouraged me to try writing a novel after I told him this idea I had. I decided to do NaNoWriMo. And to my complete surprise, I found that I Ioved getting up every day and writing about that kid. I kept working, and thanks to some amazing input from my partner, and later some amazing writing mentors, that novel became something that I was incredibly proud of and wanted to share. I just finished something new and I'm really excited about both of them.
