Joy Williams is the author of eleven books, including the novel State of Grace, a finalist for the 1974 National Book Award for Fiction, The Quick and the Dead, shortlisted for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the book of essays, Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals, a finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
She has also written a book on The Florida Keys, now in its tenth edition.