Ladarrion Williams Left Alabama as Struggling Writer, Returned as NYT Bestselling Author

By Marika N. Johnson | For The Birmingham Times Ladarrion Williams left Alabama several years ago as a struggling playwright, endured failure, lived without a home and returned last week as a New York Times best-selling author. Williams celebrated the release of his book, Blood at the Root, an instant best seller on the New York Times’s Young Adult Fiction list, coincidentally at the same store where he once worked at Books A Million in Alabaster, AL. Patrons filled the aisles for the book signing on Friday, May 30 as stacks of his books stood as a testament to Williams’s determination and talent. “I want to write, for us and about us, but not at the expense of us,” Williams, a Helena native now based in LA, told Publishers Weekly. He shared his mission online for writing the story. “No police brutality and no racial drama.” Family members from left: Greg Williams (father); Arian Allen (sister), Theresa Allen (mother) with author Ladarrion Williams. (Marika N. Johnson, For The Birmingham Times) This fantasy young adult novel began as a question on social media during COVID, “What if Harry Potter went to an HBCU?” From there Williams penned Blood at the Root....