Back in the Saddle Again

Hello everyone. I'm delighted to be back blogging and looking forward toward a very active 2104 and 2015 in my writing career.

When I retired from my full-time job at the University of Georgia a few years back, I decided to take it easy for a couple of years--to write and paint and enjoy life but to accept no invitations to read or speak. It's been a pleasure, but I've been working hard, and it's getting about time to get back before the public.

While most of my blog entries will be casual and brief, I will from time to time include some essay-length reviews and commentaries. So stick around.

In the meantime, write me anytime at philipleewilliams@gmail.com.

First a bit of news:

*I have two books coming out! The first is my autobiography, called It is Written: My Life in Letters. This will be coming out in the fall and will be a full-scale volume about my life as a writer. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of my first book, The Heart of a Distant Forest, and my autobiography will be in celebration of that. There will be numerous events for the new book, and I look forward to seeing you at one of them. An extensive tour is in the offing.

*I have just been named winner of the Adrienne Bond Poetry Award by Mercer University Press for my volume The Color of All Things: 99 Love Poems. This book will be out in the winter of 2015.

I am extremely proud of both of these books.

*My novel Emerson's Brother has been named a finalist for the Townsend Prize, the award given for the best novel published in Georgia during a two-year span. This prize will be awarded in April.

After having been essentially silent for the past two years, I have a lot to say, but I promise not to say it all in my first blog post! Please pass the word that I'm back "on the air" and that I will once again be an active part of the literary community in Georgia and the South.