Avery Danae Williams '26

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Avery Danae Williams '26

Tags: Arts Educator, Poet, Writer, Singer, Arts Patron, Arts Supporter

You in 50 words or less: Recent Princeton graduate figuring life out as a Black, Disabled, Chronically ill, Neurodivergent femme writer, lifelong learner, singer, and advocate.

Pronouns: she/they

Department: African American Studies

Certificate(s): Creative Writing

Student Group(s): Acapellago (Princeton's premier no audition Acapella group), 3x Host for Lewis Center for the Arts' C.K. Williams Reading Series, 2023 Community Action Fellow for Creative Arts with the Pace Center for Civic Engagement, The Daily Princetonian, Office of Undergraduate Admissions Blog

Bio

Avery Danae Williams is a multi-published writer, singer, lifelong learner, and mental health/racial justice/disability justice advocate born and raised in New Jersey. In May 2026, she graduated cum laude from Princeton with her BA in African American Studies and Creative Writing.

As a Creative Writing thesis student, she studied under the tutelage of 2025 National Book Award winning poet Patricia Smith, and hosted Lewis Center for the Arts' C.K. Williams Reading Series three times. She also worked extensively with such third spaces as the Pace Center for Civic Engagement, Princeton Presbyterians, and the African American Studies Department, merging her love of writing and arts education with community service. Additionally, Avery wrote two senior theses: a memoir-in-essays and a memoir-in-verse both titled "How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?", which detail her experiences enduring racism, ableism, and medical gaslighting at Forbes, University Health Services, and Princeton House Behavioral Health Women's Outpatient Program before and after her mental health hospitalization in March 2024.

Being a Black, Disabled, Chronically Ill, Neurodivergent, femme writer, Avery's poems and essays namely focus on life navigating her early twenties while simultaneously existing in a body and brain that often work against her. They also write about being a recent graduate in their Substack publication, Swerve Unknown (linked below). Her words informed by disability studies and Black feminist theory, her literary inspirations include Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Sami D. Schalk, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Ellen Samuels.

Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Cripping Youth Ministry: An Intersectional Vision for Working with Disabled Youth, edited by Justin Forbes and Dr. Erin Raffety; 2020: The Year That Changed America, edited by Kevin Powell's Writing Workshop; New Jersey Bards Poetry Review 2024; The Daily Princetonian; Princeton's Office of Undergraduate Admissions Blog; The Nassau Weekly, among other publications.

They are a proud member of Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), Princeton Arts Alumni, New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Alumni Association, Association of Black Princeton Alumni (ABPA), Association of Latino Princeton Alumni (ALPA), and Queer Princeton Alumni (QPA).

Avery is at work on revising her theses for potential publication. When she's not writing or managing her chronic illnesses from bed, you can find her spending time with family & friends, cuddling with her stuffed animals, reading, and singing "The Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog too many times in the shower.

I’d like to share my expertise with:

  • Alumni

  • Students

I’d like to:

  • Speak on a panel

  • Conduct a workshop

  • Share advice via phone or coffee chat