Fairmont writer releases first full-length poetry collection, 'Every Wreckage'
Apr. 15—FAIRMONT — Like many young fathers, Ian C. Williams has spent many a night worrying about whether he's doing the right thing.
However, as a writer, Williams gets to share some of his trials and tribulations of growing up in Appalachia in his debut poetry collection "Every Wreckage." Published by the Newberg, Oregon-based Fernwood Press, the book "documents the transformation of a life" from childhood to becoming an adult.
"I think about these poems as a journey across years and transformations in my life as I have moved from one space to another, sometimes across state lines, sometimes from childhood into adulthood, sometimes from being childless to becoming a father," Williams said. "The need to understand myself drove the creation of the book, and I think that, at the end of it, I have accomplished that in some way."
Williams, who lives in Fairmont with his family, teaches English Language Arts at University High in Morgantown.
Influenced by the work of such greats as Nick Flynn, author of "Another Bull**** Night in Suck City," which was transformed into the film "Being Flynn" and other works of confessional poetry from such authors as Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ada Limón, Louise Glück and W. Todd Kaneko.
In the book, he reckons with loss and trauma while building the foundation for a hope-filled future. His life unfolds in each poem in which he captures the reader's attention and awakens a profound sense of empathy. He likens the book to a tapestry.
"It's a tapestry that unravels itself more quickly the longer you work at it," Williams said. "However, at the same time, I think that, even though 'Every Wreckage' is keenly aware of the messiness of memory and life, it's a book that highlights what matters."
The book also guides the reader onto Williams' journey to forgiveness and moves to a place of being able to live in contentment and take pleasure in the simple things in life, such as watching the rainwater fall on his driveway with his son.
"I hope that readers of 'Every Wreckage' are encouraged to reflect upon how the ways we think about our histories can be fallible and to hold on to the relationships in our lives that matter," Williams said.
He said just sitting down to write the book — his first full-length collection — allowed him to be vulnerable and accessible.
"It has made my writing more careful and accessible; it has helped me to grow as a person and heal through things I didn't understand before beginning this project. The process of writing 'Every Wreckage' has utterly transformed my life in unexpected and innumerable ways, not only in how I think about poetry, but how I think about love, forgiveness, myself, God, and the infinite intersections of all of these things," Williams said.
Prior to the release of "Every Wreckage," Williams' poems have been published in "Fourteen Hills," "The Minnesota Review," "Salamander," "Harpur Palate," and many other literary publications. His poetry chapbook, "House of Bones," was published by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.
Williams' book has also caught the attention of his colleagues in the field of poetry.
"'Every Wreckage' is a sly, haunting, relentless book of big beautiful wounds: childhood violence, homesickness for the dead, the debris of a man's history and more," writes W. Todd Kaneko, author of "This is How the Bone Sings." "It's a book full of bullets and feathers and secrets all unearthed in the loneliest of spaces. And more than these things, the poems-language haunts each page as Ian C. Williams not only ruminates on the shadows of the past but brings them into focus against the present day."
Kaneko described Williams' book as "a gift."
Joann Renee Boswell, author of the book "Meta-Verse!," describes Williams' book as "beautiful."
"This tender collection of poetry sings with bittersweet birdsong," she writes. "I found myself moved again and again as I read, filled with awe as he concludes, 'Everything. Everything. Everything is love.'"
