Origin

Books by JL Williams include Condition of Fire (Shearsman, 2011), Locust and Marlin (Shearsman, 2014), House of the Tragic Poet (If A Leaf Falls Press, 2016) and After Economy (Shearsman Books, 2017). Published widely in journals, her poetry has been translated into numerous languages. She has read at international literature festivals and venues in the UK, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Turkey, Cyprus, Canada, Hungary, Romania, Montenegro and the US.

She wrote the libretto for the opera Snow which debuted in London in 2017, was awarded a bursary to develop a new opera with composer Samantha Fernando at the Royal Opera House and was a librettist for the award-winning 2020 covid-response Episodes project by The Opera Story. Williams curates writing events and creates workshops and professional development activities for poets. She is hopeful about the simple and mysterious power of poetry that allows us to know ourselves, each other and the world more deeply. www.jlwilliamspoetry.co.uk

'If Burns's collection is like the soothing chatter of grownups, the voices in JL Williams's After Economy are more akin to the half-heard voices of dreams - compelling, disorientating, moreish - leaving you, on waking, wondering what just happened...' -Penny Boxall

'The fifty-six poems of After Economy balance on a wavering tightrope between oblivion, void and humanity. An intriguing unpredictability fills Williams' poems, as they unfold into sensitive, beautiful musings: "this poem may die some evening in a garden by the sea". A hallucinatory-feel transcends the confines of familiarity as "I was close enough / to hear colour, to see sound". Enigmatic and thought-provoking poems.' -Poetry Book Society Bulletin, Summer Selections 2017

'After Economy is spellbinding and profound.' -Jane McKie