Excitability collects the best of Diane Williams's bold, often hilarious, stories of love, sex, child-rearing, death, and space aliens—stories that are (in the words of Bradford Morrow) "wry, sensuous, spiritual, wise, raunchy, familial . . . alive to the contradictory nuances which define our lives."

With the speed of light, Williams's stories flash scenes which encompass entire lives, yet leave a myriad of possibilities open to the reader. When Diane Williams burst onto the literary scene with This is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate in 1990, she received critical acclaim for forging her own innovative tradition. Williams followed this initial success with Some Sexual Success Stories and The Stupefaction, from which she has gained a large following of admirers from critics and poets to students of creative writing.