Ricardo A Wilson II

Ricardo A Wilson II serves as an Associate Professor of English at Williams College, where he teaches courses in African American literature, creative writing, and film studies. He is also the founder and executive director of The Outpost Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting writers of color from the United States and Latin America through residencies and advocacy.

His academic journey began with a B.A. from Brown University in 2000, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 2015. At Williams, Wilson has taught a diverse range of courses including "1930s Black Literature," "Dislocating the Harlem Renaissance," "Race and the Zombie Apocalypse," and "Contemporary Mexican Cinema and the World."

Wilson's scholarly and creative work centers on the intersections of race, literature, and culture across the Americas. His monograph The Nigrescent Beyond: Mexico, the United States, and the Psychic Vanishing of Blackness (Northwestern University Press, 2020) explores the erasure of Blackness in narratives of Mexico and the U.S. His short story collection An Apparent Horizon and Other Stories (PANK Books, 2021) was a finalist for the Vermont Book Award and the Big Other Book Award. He is currently editing Troubled Lands, a collection of short fiction translated by Langston Hughes in 1935 (Princeton University Press, 2026), and working on a novel titled Even Worse than the Nightmare.

His creative writing has been published in 3:AM Magazine, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, BOMB, Callaloo, The Common, and The Offing, among others. For his literary contributions, Wilson received a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council.

Wilson is actively engaged in institutional efforts to foster diversity and inclusion. He serves on the Committee on Priorities and Resources at Williams College and is associated with the Pathways for Inclusive Excellence initiative, which includes the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) program. Through The Outpost Foundation, he provides critical support to emerging writers of color.