Anthologized in The Best American Poetry, El Williams III’s writing has been published or is forthcoming in The Georgia Review, New England Review, Orion Magazine, Ploughshares, River Styx, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships and scholarships from Bread Loaf, Cave Canem, Community of Writers, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference, Tin House, and the Watering Hole.

A graduate of the University of Missouri with a BA in English and minor in Black studies, he earned a dual MA/MFA in African American & African diaspora studies and creative writing from Indiana University. Currently, he is a doctoral student studying literature and creative writing at the University of Houston, and serves as the Associate Poetry Editor for Southern Indiana Review.

In fall of 2020, an excerpt from his poem, “[Redacted] [Redacted]’s Father Cusses Out Every White Person in the Audience,” was selected by PSA: STL, as its featured text installation. A section of the poem was displayed on the side of a red-brick building located on the Southside of St. Louis, which is El’s hometown.