STILL LIFE (2022)
Katherine J. Williams writes with an artists’s eye, candidly and exquisitely exploring moments of beauty, tenderness, doubt, and devastation. These poems from one life become a celebration of the human capacity for joy in its complexity. Readers will recognize themselves in Still Life, and will find ways to understand the world anew.
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PRAISE FOR STILL LIFE:
“With rich sensory detail and a keen perception of the natural world, Katherine J. Williams explores absence and presence and affirms that even after great loss, life is Still Life. Through the roles of daughter, mother, wife, widow, grandmother, and contemplative, she explores how sorrow ‘ties us to each other, wears our edges smooth, and over and over washes the world, leaving us rinsed and clean’”.
—Ellen Bass, author of Indigo.
“Katherine Williams’ poems have a crystalline quality, polished and honed over time. Yet they retain the rare ability to capture fully that moment when ‘something new flames into being’, surprising both writer and reader alike. Each poem brings glinting new insights to the surface, and I have no doubt her work will be read with relish for many years to come”.
—James Crews, Poet and Editor of The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection & Joy.
“Elegance, intelligence, and a deep and tender wisdom run through this marvelous and much-anticipated debut collection. Katherine Williams asks us to slow down, to pay ever more close attention, as she explores family lore, mortality, the truths our bodies tell us, and the subtle unfolding mysteries of the natural world. Page after page, these clear-eyed and open-hearted poems unfurl their lyrical surprises. This is an achingly beautiful book”.
— Rose Solari, co-founder of Alan Squire Publishing, author of The Last Girl.
"Evening on Barr Hill" Poetry Video
Selected Poem from Still Life, read by Katherine Williams.
Cafe Muse Literary Salon, November 2022
This Cafe Muse Literary Salon begins with some fascinating poems by Marianne Boruch. Ellen Aronofsky Cole’s introduction of Katherine starts at around 28 minutes followed by reading from Still Life.
Healing Power of Poetry Reading, March 2023
Katherine reads poems from Still Life in this Healing Power of Poetry Reading event. At 58:10, Katherine is introduced by the Poet Laureate of Takoma Park, Taylor Johnson, who has just been made the first poet-in-residence at the Guggenheim.
Katherine Williams podcast.mp3The Poet and The Poem 2022-2023 Series
Katherine join's Grace Cavaleri's program The Poet and The Poem, which is recorded at the Library of Congress, to read from Still Life.
The Delmarva Review Vol. 16, 2023
5 new poems selected, one of which, Place Setting, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
3 Top Story, The Cambridge Spy, from The Delmarva Review.
Hauthunger poem selected as a 3 Top Story in The Cambridge Spy.