I recently read this article about James Frey and his book A Million Little Pieces. Frey’s ‘memoir’ talked about a lot of the same things as mine – crime, addiction, prison, rehabilitation – and while a lot of these things did happen to Frey, they were embellished on in the book. (‘Embellished’ feels like the…More
Author Archives: Angela
Angela J Williams, PhD, is a writer, illustrator and story teller from Wollongong, Australia.
She is the author of Snakes and Ladders: a memoir and host of the Deboning Power Podcast.
A writer, thinker and yeller, Angela Williams is mildly notorious for seeing problems and pointing them out. She’s tussled with Fred Nile in the Sydney Morning Herald, taken academia to task in the Guardian’s Anonymous Academic, gone to Crikey about the treatment of mentally ill women in prison, and most recently blown the whistle on dangerous risks in her (former) charity workplace. Angela does one thing really well – find problems and yell about them.
Feedback is hard even when it’s good
Caught up with Jo Chipperfield this week to go over the manuscript, and the feedback was amazing. Which is hard and easy and exciting and terrifying. It feels like I’m on the cusp of something amazing. The current draft is at 86,000 words and Jo’s most exciting words were: ‘This is ready to go to…More
Crime is going down in NSW but inmate numbers are skyrocketing, old prisons are reopening and it’s almost election time. Should we be worried?
After three years of dropping numbers, the prison population in NSW rose to over 10,500 between 2012 and 2014. The maximum capacity of NSW prisons is 11,000. Crime rates are mostly falling but changes in bail laws and higher rates of arrest and incarceration mean the numbers behind bars are likely to keep growing. Attempts…More
Mindfullness training
I’m on my lunch break from a learning and development course called Mindfullness in the Workplace. Here are all the reasons why today is not the day for me to be doing this: First day back at work after six days at home alone suffering from virus-induced vertigo – wanted to come to work and…More
Oh Varuna, can’t I just live there?
Varuna, Oh Varuna. It doesn’t feel like words will suffice but I suppose I can convince them to. I was sharing the house with five other women. On the first night when we all met around the open fire, Janisis, the Varuna CEO said to us: ‘It’s not so much the lack of interruptions here,…More
And the winner of the 2014 Varuna PIP is…
Angela Williams! It couldn’t have been more poetic. I was at the first round of the 5×5 Roller Derby tournament, my first ever gig as a tournament head official. Ten participating teams, a ridiculous number of officials. Head reffed an absolutely insane game which ran over time, dealt with the first injury of the season,…More
Fred Nile under fire for Facebook post about Charlotte Dawson abortion
Michaela Whitbourn Published: February 24, 2014 – 12:29PM The Christian Democratic Party MP Fred Nile has come under fire for a controversial post on his party’s official Facebook page linking the death of Charlotte Dawson to a pregnancy termination during her marriage to Olympic swimmer Scott Miller. Late on Sunday, a photograph of Dawson was…More
Open Letter to Fred Nile about bullying Charlotte Dawson
Dear Mr Nile, I was disgusted to open Facebook this morning and see your post linking Charlotte Dawson’s death to her decision to have a termination. In your original post you said: “Many I am sure are now aware of the tragic ending to Charlotte Dawson. It highlights how depression and self-harm can affect anyone.…More
Angela J Williams 