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Sherley Anne Williams (August 25, 1944 – July 6, 1999) was an American poet, novelist, professor, vocalist, Jazz poet, and social critic. Many of her works tell stories about her life in the African-American community.

Biography
Sherley Anne Williams was born in Bakersfield, California. When she was young her family picked cotton in order to earn money. She was aged eight when her father died of tuberculosis and was 16 years old when her mother died. Williams graduated from Thomas Alva Edison High School in Fresno, California, in 1962. In 1966 she earned her bachelor's degree in English at what is now California State University, Fresno and she received her master's degree at Brown University in 1972. The following year (1973) she became a professor of English Literature at the University of California at San Diego. She traveled to Ghana under a 1984 Fulbright grant.

Her works include collections of poetry such as The Peacock Poems (1975) and Some One Sweet Angel Chile (1982), the novel Dessa Rose (1986), and two children's books. Williams also published the groundbreaking non-fiction work Give Birth to Brightness: A Thematic Study of Neo-Black Literature in 1972. She wrote a play entitled Letters from a New England Negro (1992).

Williams is also known for her music which mainly consisted of blues and jazz poetry. In 1982 Williams wrote, recorded, and self-published her debut single titled "Some One Sweet Angel Chile", which was re-released by Blues Economique Records in 1984. The music for "Some One Sweet Angel Chile" was composed by Bertram Turetzky.

In the early 1990s Williams reconnected with Bertram Turetzky for some recording sessions for his album Compositions And Improvisations, which also featured various jazz and blues artists including Vinny Golia, Jerome Rothenberg, Quincy Troupe, and Nancy Turetzky. Williams is credited as a vocalist for her contributions to Turetzky's album. Three of the songs featured on the album were previously-written poems by Williams recorded in musical format: "One-Sided Bed Blues", "Big Red And His Brother", and "The Wishon Line". The album was recorded at Studio 101 in Solana Beach, California during the summer of 1992, and released by Nine Winds Records in 1993.