Williams to join the Washington Post as books editor
John Williams
The following excerpt was sent out from The Washington Post’s managing editor for diversity and inclusion Krissah Thompson and deputy features editor Mitch Rubin:
We are thrilled to announce that John Williams is joining The Washington Post as books editor, helping to reinvigorate this important coverage area.
John will lead our award-winning nonfiction and fiction books team, hiring new writers and working with colleagues to reach new audiences. John is a leader in books journalism. Since 2011, he has been on the Books desk at the New York Times, first as a web producer and often as a writer.
Starting in 2016, he became the editor of the paper’s staff book critics. He’s also been a mainstay of the Book Review’s weekly podcast, producing and, more recently, hosting the show.
Before joining the Times, John spent six years in the editorial department of HarperCollins and later worked as a freelance writer and editor. In 2009, he started a literary website called The Second Pass, which featured reviews of new books, essays about older ones and a blog that John anchored.
John was born and raised in Oceanside, N.Y., on Long Island, where all his family roots are, before moving to Texas at age 14. He spent 12 years there, including college (Trinity University, in San Antonio), despite being a cold-weather person. After college he worked as a sports writer for newspapers in the Dallas area, often covering high school football (the equivalent, in Texas, of covering the White House).