Born: Dec. 12th
Occupation: Hopeful writer
Genres: Crime fiction, mystery, thriller
Subjects: Emerson James
    
JL Williams is the author of Legacies. Like his character Emerson, he was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. JL has spent a life balancing the home he loves—one that is architecturally beautiful, vibrant, ethnically segregated, and historically violent—with the education his parents insisted he pursue. While he has spent his life inside the walls of academia, where he has published essays and academic texts, he considers himself—he seeks to become—a fiction writer. JL not only respects the genre and those who came before him—successful storytellers like Burke, Paretsky, George, Lee, Mosley, Conolly, Grafton, and Sandford—but he wants to extend the genre’s base, explore a different urban world, and give readers a look at the dark side of one of America’s largest cities. JL has lectured and presented papers throughout America and Europe on the topics of racism, violence, and religion in both American and British literature. Much of his writing explores the devastating effects of these social inequities on various ethnic groups.  

When not teaching and writing, JL takes pictures. His pics, like his writing, attempt to expose a specific kind of reality–a digital rendering that, with the proper lens, shows the underbelly of what has generally been considered unworthy of serious attention. His “shots” are gritty, and he seeks to record the forgotten, the abandoned, the ugly surfaces that most ignore.

He currently lives in Manhattan, but he goes home to Chicago for extended visits frequently.

The novel, which introduces the protagonist Emerson James, is the first in a series of books developed around the character.

Legacies is JL’s first novel.

Feel free to email JL.