1955年生于加拿大一个传教士家庭。幼年随父母至新几内亚高地一个原始部落传教，少年时返回家乡进入神学院就读，成年后移居美国。从事过保险、建筑、创业基金、电信、销售等多种行业。因婚姻遭遇坎坷，开始接受心理治疗，试图同妻子与家人和解。2003年宣告破产，房子也被拍卖，只好白天在朋友经营的小科技公司任职，晚上兼职以度时日。

威廉常年保持写作的习惯，但只是给朋友看看。妻子力劝他为儿女写下内心经历的情感沧桑，以及对信仰、感恩、宽容的看法，于是写出《棚屋》初稿，并向出版社投稿。结果连遭26家出版社拒绝，只得与两位好友成立了一家出版社自费出版《棚屋》。没有广告，没有媒体宣传，完全依靠读者的口口相传，出版半年后，竟登上《纽约时报》畅销榜第一名！

正如《纽约时报》给予的崇高赞誉：“没有媒体的狂轰滥炸，没有奥普拉的推荐，全凭民间的口口相传，《棚屋》创造了销量超过1000万册的奇迹。”

《棚屋》已被翻译为35种文字在全球100多个国家和地区公开发行。

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, still trapped in his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack. Against his better judgement he arrives at the shack on a wintery afternoon and faces up to his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant, THE SHACK wrestles with the timeless question, 'Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?' The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!