Come in the house

Welcome to the website of award-winning writer Philip Lee Williams, author of 16 published books including novels, poetry, and essays. We’re delighted you stopped by, and remember that Philip is always glad to hear from readers at philipleewilliams@gmail.com.

Philip’s latest book is the ambitious and hilarious epic novel called The Divine Comics: A Vaudeville Show in Three Acts, which was published late in 2011. This 1000-page tour de force is a modern-day reimagining of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and is among the longest novels ever published in the U.S. It is for sale everywhere, online and at bookstores.

Williams’s next book, Emerson’s Brother, a new novel, will be out late this spring. A deeply moving book of letters between noted essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson and his mentally unwell brother Bulkeley, it has already drawn praise from the former president of the international Thoreau and Emerson societies.

In the fall of 2010, Philip’s critically acclaimed book The Flower Seeker: An Epic Poem of William Bartram came out. It was named national Book of the Year by the literary journal Books and Culture and also earned Williams a fourth Georgia Author of the Year Award. All three of the above books were published by Mercer University Press. You may read a transcript of Philip’s interview with Books and Culture here or listen to a podcast here.

In April 2011, the University of Georgia Press published a new paper edition of Williams’s Civil War novel A Distant Flame. When this novel was originally published by St. Martin’s in 2004, it won the Michael Shaara Prize as the best Civil War novel published in the United States that year.

In addition to his work as a novelist, Williams is an accomplished composer, with some 18 symphonies to his credit, along with seven concerti and numerous other pieces. He has also been a visual artist since he was a teenager.

In February 2012, Williams retired from the University of Georgia, where he had been a writer and taught creative writing for nearly 27 years. Though he no longer does speeches or autographings, he is pleased to interact with readers and is always available for interviews.

Dear visitors,

Thanks so much for taking time to look through this website dedicated to my work. The long journey of an artist’s life can be a solitary one, but I have always found it more enjoyable because you are here with me.

This site contains information about my books, music, and life. I continue to do what I have done every day for the past 40 years: I get up early and write. For decades, I went to my day-job after that, first as a newspaper editor and then as a science writer and adjunct professor of creative writing for the University of Georgia. I am now retired from UGA, and yet the urge to create remains powerful for me.

My most recent novel, The Divine Comics: A Vaudeville Show in Three Acts, came out in November 2011, and it is a book on which I worked for some 30 years. It’s a jangling caravan of characters and plots, acting out a modern version of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a work that shattered me (for the right reasons!) when I was a sophomore in college. I think in time TDC will gain recognition as an unusual and giddy attempt to organize and make sense of what makes us human here in the early 21st century.

The latest of my works, Emerson’s Brother, will come out later this spring. Unlike The Divine Comics, it is a tender, touching, and, I believe, very moving book about the world of those around us who are “different.”

So thank you for visiting and caring about my work. Think of me walking beside you at the edge of a beautiful mountain stream and telling you in person how much your support and kindness mean to me.

Hope and happiness,

Philip Lee Williams

Symphony No. 17: Tenebrae

This symphony is subtitled "Tenebrae," which is a religious service in the Christian church but literally means "shadows" or "darkness" in Latin. It is a quiet, contemplative symphony, a single movement for full orchestra. (29'48")

Symphony No. 18: For the Civil Rights Martyrs

This work is subtitled "For the Civil Rights Martyrs" and is in memory of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, murdered in Mississippi in the summer of 1964 while working for Civil Rights. It is also in memory of all who died in the struggle. It is in two movements, "The Lynching" and "Souls."

One: The Lynching (15'25")

Two: Souls (14'25")