Associate Professor Paul Williams, a core member of UniSC's Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre (ITRC), integrates his expertise in literature and creative writing with the ITRC's focus on transcultural narratives and diverse storytelling. His research explores themes of identity, memory, and cross-cultural experiences through literature and creative writing.
Paul studied African literature in South Africa and Creative Writing in the USA, teaching at universities across South Africa, the Middle East, the UK, and the USA. His acclaimed works include The Secret of Old Mukiwa, which won the Zimbabwe International Book Fair Award, and Soldier Blue, nominated for South Africa’s Book of the Year.
Recent publications include Novel Ideas: Writing Innovative Fiction (2020), Don't Tell (2021), Writing the Radical Memoir (2023) and Write Now! (2025). With numerous awards for teaching, research, and writing, Paul’s works are studied in schools and universities worldwide.
Professional Memberships
- NAWE (National Association of Writers in Education) UK
- AAWP (Australasian Association of Writing Programs) AU
- AWP (Association of Writing Programs) USA
Awards/Fellowships
- Advance Award: Advancing the Student Experience, 2014, University of the Sunshine Coast
- Carnovski African Studies Scholarship, 1989, University of the Witwatersrand
- The Dean's Humanities Award, 1994, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
- Winner — Fiction Young Adult Novel section, 2001, Zimbabwe International Book Fair
- TRIO teaching Award 2003, Blue Mountain Community College, Oregon
- Book of the Year — 2008, The Witness (South Africa)
Professional Social Media
- https://www.paulwilliamsauthor.com/ (personal website)*
- LinkedIn *
- Facebook *
* This is an external website and UniSC is not responsible for the content.
Current Research Projects
|
Project Name |
Project Description |
|||||||
|
‘Australian Authors and their Marketing Knowledge’. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sExfFUBxkhfie_AdiXD4Ft5V5od5Uwu0/view; (HERDC Funding $120,000) |
||||||||
|
South African National Parks |
Exploring immersive tourism experiences: pro-environmental intent and eco-storytelling, 2023-5. |
|||||||
|
LyS Research Group (Spain) |
‘A Confederacy of LLMs: Evaluation of Language Models on Creative Writing’, 2023-2025. |
|||||||
|
ITRC Research theme 2 |
Wandiny Poetry Project, 2022-24. |
|||||||
|
Country as home: Indigenous Poetry Creative Gathering |
An exploration of what Country as home means to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander poets and Elders and to all Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants through the vehicle of poetry. |
|||||||
|
‘Our stories – our voice’ - Australian International Student Narratives |
A showcase of the unique voices and stories and creative writing styles of USC students who speak English as an additional language. |
|||||||
|
Improving Literacy through Narrative and Creative Writing |
An exploration of the impact of creative writing pedagogical intervention in three year 9 classrooms. |
|||||||
Research Grants and Commissions
|
Grant / project name |
Investigators |
Funding body and A$ Value |
Year (S) |
Focus |
||||
|
Australian Edition of the Chicago Quarterly Review |
Dr Paul Williams |
Copyright Agency $15,000 |
2019 |
The Australian Edition of the Chicago Quarterly Review will include an inclusive variety of Australian writers (multicultural, young/ old, emerging and established, LGBTIQA+, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, Manus Island and other refugees) in order to showcase the best of Australian literary talent to an international platform. |
||||
|
Improving Literacy through Narrative and Creative Writing
|
Dr Shelley Davidow, Dr Paul Williams, Dr Michael Carey |
Steiner Education Australia (SEA) $11,500 |
2019 |
An exploration of the impact of creative writing pedagogical intervention in three year 9 classrooms. |
||||
Potential Research Projects for HDR & Honours Students
- Postmodern fiction
- The novel / historiographic metafiction
- Creative non-fiction, particularly in relation to memoir/autobiography
- Post-colonial world literature
- Writing for children and young adults
- Fictocriticism
- Creative Writing studies
Supervision of Honours and Higher Degree by Research candidates
- Please see Paul's HDR completions via his UniSC Research Bank link
Research areas
- Creative Writing research methodologies
- Creative Writing performative pedagogies
- NTRO Postcolonial literary fiction
- NTRO Short Stories
- NTRO Crime fiction
- NTRO Memoir
- Creative Writing postcolonial children’s literature
- Creative Writing autobiography
Teaching areas
- Creative Writing — narrative, poetic and performative craft; children’s/ young adult literature
- Literary Studies
- The novel: experimental fiction
- Autobiography/memoir
Dr Paul Williams is a creative writer based in the USC School of Business and Creative Industries. His research interests encompass areas such as post colonialism and postmodernism in fiction; African literature; autobiographic / historiographic metafiction and narrative constructions of the ‘self’ and ‘other’; children’s and young adult fiction; and creative writing as a transcultural activity.