CONSTANT LAVAL WILLIAMS is a Los Angeles-born poet and former resident of Paris, France, where his writing first came of age. Although he is first and foremost a poet, he is also a musician (Post-Punk/Darkwave solo project Casket Cassette), photographer, and polymathic creative.

He IS A RECIPIENT OF the University of Southern CaliforniA’s Beau J. Boudreaux Poetry Award, and His poetry has been published in journals such as THE ADROIT JOURNAL, COPPER NICKEL, Lana Turner, Prairie Schooner, Blackbird, Sixth Finch, DIAGRAM, RHINO, Painted Bride Quarterly, Sugar House Review, Bellvue Literary Review, and december magazine, among others. He was a finalist for the the Adroit journal’s 2026 editor’s prize in poetry, the 2025 RHINO Founders’ Prize, and the 2025 Ninth Letter Literary Award. He was a semifinalist for the Poetry Foundation’s 2024 Ruth Lilly anD Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship, and The Adroit Journal’s 2024 Gregory Djanikian Scholars Program.

He volunteers as a SENIOR reader at Ploughshares and RECEIVED an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in May of 2024.HIS DEBUT COLLECTION OF POETRY, ELEGY WITH BEAUTIFUL CHILD, IS THE RECIPIENT OF THE 2025-26 JAKE ADAM YORK PRIZE (JUDGED BY PATRICIA SMITH) AND IS FORTHCOMING FROM MILKWEED EDITIONS IN 2027.