Nerys Williams deftly employs modernist techniques in her innovative new collection of poems, Sound Archives. The reader is enticed by hints and clues, by tone and rhythm, by fragment and exclamation through themes that run from a painting by Gwen John, to 'Conversations with Cocteau', from 'Methane Sonata' to 'Global Warriors'. Often a poem will evolve as a description of a landscape or setting such as Caldy Island, or 'Cater's Starstruck Diner, L.A.' or even as an argument as in 'The Pedagogical poet'. With her philosophical and critical cast of mind these poems are as much about perceptions and values as they are about their subjects, they build sounds-scapes of imagery, veering away from straight-forward narrative. They, as one poem says, 'murder the discursive', in order to eschew cliche. She also uses humour and satire to subvert our expectations of say, a piece ostensibly about heartbreak. She often uses the imperative to challenge our compliance as in 'How to MakeThings Disappear'. Williams confronts our preconceptions about what it might mean to be a woman writing against the background of two formidable traditions: that of Welsh-speaking Wales and of English literature.
A thoughtful, subtle and fascinating first collection.

Shortlisted for the 2011 Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

Sound Archive is an innovative display of modernist techniques by Welsh poet Nerys Williams.

As we learn from her title poem, 'It takes patience this piercing / of noise in an archive of voices.' The reader is enticed by hints and clues, by tone and rhythm, by fragment and exclamation. These poems build sounds-scapes of imagery, veering away from straightforward narrative. Williams confronts our preconceptions about what it might mean to be a woman writing against the background of two formidable traditions: Welsh-speaking Wales and English literature. A thoughtful, subtle and fascinating first collection.

"Here's a fine writer who is completely unique in Wales. Nerys Williams... [is] a tremendous addition to the Seren poetry list."
Robert Minhinnick

Nerys Williams is from Carmarthenshire. She has an MA in Contemporary Poetry and a D.Phil in American Studies. Before her post-graduate studies she worked in the sound department at BBC Wales and as an assistant in mental health care. In 2005 Nerys won the Ted McNulty Prize for Best Single Poem for 'The Dead Zoo', which appears in this collection. She is the author of two critical books: The Edinburgh Critical Guide to Contemporary Poetry (2011), and Reading Error: The Lyric and Contemporary Poetry (2007). She now lectures in American Literature at University College, Dublin.