Thomas Chatterton Williams is an American cultural critic and writer born on March 26, 1981, in Newark, New Jersey. He is the son of a black father, Clarence Williams, and a white mother, Kathleen. Named after the English poet Thomas Chatterton, he grew up in Fanwood, New Jersey, and attended Union Catholic Regional High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Georgetown University and a master's degree from New York University's Cultural Reporting and Criticism program.
Williams is the author of two memoirs:
Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture (2010), which reflects on his upbringing and the impact of hip-hop culture on black youth,
Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race (2019), focusing on race and identity.
He is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a visiting professor of humanities and senior fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He has also contributed to The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Magazine, and other prestigious publications. He was a 2019 New America Fellow, a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, and a recipient of the Berlin Prize. Williams is also a board member of the American Academy in Berlin.
