Page 12 - FOREST HILL Lifestyle Magazine Oct 2021

PHOTO : Ian Williams by Justin Morris
Book Review :
DISORIENTATION BEING BLACK IN THE WORLD
by Ian Williams
Over the last ten years, Ian Williams has emerged as one of the most original talents on the Canadian literary landscape. His first collection of poetry, You Know Who You Are, offered a powerful look at what it means to be young and black in today’s society. Of the collection, Poets’ Quarterly raved that, “Williams’ hand reaches out from these pages and pulls, pulls, pulls the heart by its truest beat. He drags us to the mirror and makes us look unflinchingly at who we are. And in the end, he allows us to love ourselves." HMag said that "Williams' ability to easily transition between scenes of gloom and pessimism to scenes of hope, makes You Know Who You Are a diverse collection, rooted in authenticity and powerful words." You Know Who You Are was shortlisted for the ReLit Award and announced Ian Williams as a writer to watch.
Williams’ next collection of poetry was Personals, an ambitious exploration of love and longing in the digital age. “Thoroughly contemporary...witty and linguistically playful,” declared the Toronto Star. “These poems offer explorations of different situations where intimacy is sought or hoped for or thwarted...” Personals was shortlisted for the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize, the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award, and the ReLit Award.
With his debut collection of short stories, Not Anyone’s Anything, Ian Williams guided readers through Toronto and its surrounding suburbia, introducing a tremendous cast of characters dealing with the angst and anxieties of coming of age in these most uncertain times. Of the book, Prism Magazine proclaimed “Williams has conjured a work definitely worth giving. This collection is one to keep around and read again.”
In 2019, Ian Williams published his debut novel Reproduction, a funny, surprising and poignant exploration into the nature of family; those that we are born into and those we invent by love. The Toronto Star called the novel “Witty, playful, and disarmingly offbeat—even as it hums with serious themes” while Now Magazine described it as “A family saga like no other, with vivid characters and spectacular narrative
12 FOREST HILL Lifestyle OCTOBER 2021
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