“the haunting, incantatory poetry of JL Williams”
Chris Powici, Editor Northwords Now
“It begins in the dark and ends in the dark, moving from creation to a kind of muted apocalypse, passing on the way through many forms of natural and mythical transformation.
Williams writes short graceful lyrics shot through with, at her best, little scags of elemental terseness.
There is a distant echo of the Hughes of Crow, in the slightly absurd figure of the bat who reappears at intervals through the sequence like a kind of tutelary, demonic or totemic spirit.
Williams, for instance, has a true feeling for the micro-rhythms of lyric form…”
Lyndon Davies, Extracts from a review in Poetry Wales Spring 12
“Luscious, sensory, impressionistic, often non-literal, emotive,
parallel universe lexigymnastics. So expressive… a word-force.”
Kate Tough, Poetry @ The Ivory
“raw and delicate”
Paul Deaton, Editor From Glasgow to Saturn
Condition of Fire is published by Shearsman Books and is available for purchase
from, among other places, Waterstones, Book Depository and Amazon.
