Pushing the page past the limits, Williams wins poetry Pulitzer

Humanities professor Charles Kenneth Williams is a man who understands that great writing obeys no limits.

He spent more than 30 years crafting a single poem, and his students say publishers have had to make books wider and taller so the extra-long lines he wrote would not be broken in the wrong place.

Yesterday, Williams was rewarded for his unique style of writing, receiving the poetry Pulitzer Prize for his collection titled "Repair."

"It's great, just great," Williams said excitedly, after mentioning his plans for a celebration tomorrow with his family and friends.

"Repair" is a collection of poems on hurt and healing that addresses a range of topics including the Holocaust and American race relations. "It's a collection of poetry that I worked on over the last few years, and some began long before that," he said. "One of them called 'King' took me 30 years from start to finish."

Williams was co-teaching CWR 307/THR 307: Translation and Adaptation for the Theater, with theater and dance program director Michael Cadden yesterday when he was called away from his classroom at 185 Nassau Street. "A program secretary came to the door and signaled [Williams] that he needed to come into the hall," Cadden said.

Williams said his wife was waiting in the hall to congratulate him. "My wife came over to class because someone called her who had seen it on the news," Williams said. "I was called out, and there she was."

He returned to the classroom and announced the news to Cadden and their six students.

"He disappeared from class randomly, then I heard laughter in the hallway," said Amanda Whitehead '00, one of the students in the class. "He walked back in, sat down and said, 'I just won the Pulitzer Prize.' "

Whitehead said the class applauded Williams after the announcement.

"He said it with an understatement and a little smile, then he said that he hoped it was really true and not just a miscommunication," Whitehead added.

"It was so exciting to have it happen today," Rachel Lisker '00 said. "There were so few of us, and we were all right there. Even though he's usually reserved, he was thrilled. He's a great poet."

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"It's nice to have the recognition for this department and for the University," noted Lisker, who is part of the work-study program in the creative writing department. "This department has great faculty," she said.

Williams' "Flesh and Blood," published in 1987, won the National Book Critics Award, and "The Vigil" was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1996.

As soon as class was over, Williams was overwhelmed by phone calls, Cadden said. "We were just about to adjourn when he found out," Cadden said. "The minute we got out of class, [Williams] hurried down to the communication office. They were fielding a lot of incoming calls and questions, and they needed to know what to say."

"This is terrific," Cadden said. He added that he was proud of Princeton's longstanding tradition of Pulitzer Prize-winning professors, including last year's winner — Ferris Professor of Journalism John McPhee '53. "Princeton has something of an affiliation with Pulitzer Prizes," Cadden said.