While a graduate student, Williams published
Contemporary African American Female Playwrights: An Annotated Bibliography in 1999, reviewed in
Feminist Collections as "a service to theatrical producers and play enthusiasts alike" by locating more than sixty African-American female writers with works published between 1959 and 1997—a group given minimal space in anthologies and other compilations. In
Modern Drama, Kathy A. Perkins noted that the work's focus on African-American women playwrights was the first contribution of its kind, and said: "Not since the publication of
Bernard Peterson's
Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays (1988) has there been such a valuable resource in this field." a study of African-American fiction writer
Leon Forrest, focusing on his use of black cultural traditions as well as his place in the
Afro-modernist literary school. In 2008, she had a faculty fellowship at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at
Duke University. Williams went on to become professor and chair of the English department at
Howard University. She is on the advisory board of the
Hurston/Wright Foundation, the
American Council of Learned Societies, the
Furious Flower Poetry Center, and the Toni Morrison Society. Her most recent book is ''Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship, published by Amistad/Harper in June 2025.'' == Books ==