Phillip B. Williams Ours

About the author:

Chicago native Phillip B. Williams is the author of the full-length poetry collections Mutiny, winner of the 2022 American Book Award, and Thief in the Interior, winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. He serves as a faculty member at the New York University and Randolph College MFA programs.

About the book:

An ingenious, sweeping, and much anticipated debut novel, Ours introduces readers to an enigmatic woman named Saint, a fearsome conjuror who, in the 1830s, annihilates plantations all over Arkansas to rescue the people enslaved there. She brings those she has freed to a haven of her own creation: a town just north of St. Louis, magically concealed from outsiders, named Ours. But over time, her conjuring and memories begin to betray her, leaving the town vulnerable to intrusions by newcomers with powers of their own.

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