Formative Years
Joy Williams spent her early formative years in the Portland, Maine area, graduating from high school at age 15. She got received her undergraduate degree from Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio. Although she hoped to join the Peace Corps after college, her obvious talent for writing led her to the University of Iowa where she attended the famed Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She studied under R.V. Cassill, Vance Bourjaily and Richard Yates there. She married and moved to Sarasota, Florida shortly after graduation.