Deborah Williams has published academic articles about US women writers and feminist historiography, including Not in Sisterhood (Palgrave). With Cyrus RK Patell, she is co-editor of Oxford History of the Novel in English Volume Eight: US Fiction from 1940; she also contributed the chapter on US children’s literature. From 2014-2018, Williams wrote a biweekly column for The National, the English-language newspaper of the UAE; other non-academic writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Rumpus, and Brevity. Her most recent book, The Necessity of Young Adult Fiction (Oxford, 2023), focuses on the ways that young adult fiction offers imaginative reconceptualizations about identity, nation, and the human relationship to the planet.

Her research interests include Feminist literary history and historiography; Writing and composition pedagogy; Children’s literature; Global liberal arts education; Creative writing