Eleanor Williams is a British writer. Her debut collection of prose, ''Attrib. and Other Stories'' (

Influx Press Influx Press is an independent British publishing company, based in north London, founded in 2012 by Gary Budden and Kit Caless. They are known for publishing "innovative and challenging fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction from across the UK ...

, 2017), was awarded the 2018

Republic of Consciousness Prize The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses is an annual British literary prize founded by the author Neil Griffiths. It rewards fiction published by UK and Irish small presses, defined as those with fewer than five full-time employee ...

and the 2017

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...

. Her writing has also been anthologised in ''The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story'' (

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint (trade name), imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Korean language, Korean amon ...

, 2018), ''Liberating the Canon'' (Dostoevsky Wannabe, 2018) and ''Not Here: A Queer Anthology of Loneliness'' (Pilot Press, 2017). Williams is an alumna of the MacDowell Workshop and a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

. She taught at

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

, and supervises ''Jungftak'', a journal for contemporary prose poetry. Her first novel, ''The Liar's Dictionary'', was published in 2020, described in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' as a "virtuoso performance full of charm... a glorious novel – a perfectly crafted investigation of our ability to define words and their power to define us." Stuart Kelly in a review in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' wrote of the book: "It deals with love as something which cannot be put into words, and dare not speak its name (done neither stridently nor sentimentally). It is, in short, a delight." Williams's stories "Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good" (2018) and "Moonlighting" (2019) have been broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

under the '' Short Works'' strand, and her story "Scrimshaw" was a finalist for the 2020

BBC National Short Story Award The BBC National Short Story Award (known as the National Short Story Award in 2006 and 2007) has been described as "one of the most prestigious wardsfor a single short story" and the richest prize in the world for a single short story. It is an ...

. A 10-part radio series ''Gambits'', based around the theme of chess, was broadcast on Radio 4 beginning in November 2021.

Early and personal life

Williams' given name is Eleanor; the unusual spelling of Eley came from school. She grew up with two sisters. Williams graduated from

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Selwyn (bishop of Lichfield), Georg ...

. She lives in West Oxfordshire with her wife Nell Stevens.

Awards and honours

In 2017, Williams received the

Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...

's Writing Grant, and in 2018, she received a MacDowell Fellowship and Fellowship of

. In 2023, Williams was named on the ''Granta'' Best of Young British Novelists list, compiled every 10 years since 1983, identifying the 20 most significant British novelists aged under 40.

Selected bibliography

Novel

* ''The Liar's Dictionary'' (2020)

Collections

* ''Attrib. and Other Stories'' (2017) * ''Frit'', poetry pamphlet (2017) * ''Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good'' (2024)

Short stories and essays

* "In pursuit of the swan at Brentford Ait", essay in ''An Unreliable Guide to London'', edited by Kit Caless and Gary Budden (2016) * "Of Père Lachaise, On Business", in ''We'll Never Have Paris'', edited by Andrew Gallix (2019) * "To Plot, Plan, Redress", on the

Rebecca Riots The Rebecca Riots () took place between 1839 and 1843 in West and Mid Wales. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to levels of taxation. The rioters, often men dressed as women, took ...

1839, in ''Resist: Stories of Uprising'' (2019) * "Scrimshaw", story anthologised in ''Still Worlds Turning'' (2019)

References

External

Eley Williams
on

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* * Eley William
The Books of My Life
at ''

''
Profile
at C&W
Profile
at Profession Writing Academy * Profile at

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Profile
at Granta {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Eley Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge British LGBTQ academics English LGBTQ writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century British women writers 21st-century English writers