Fourth Estate seizes second novel and short story collection by award-winning Williams 

Fourth Estate has snapped-up a “virtuoso” collection of short stories and a “dazzling” new novel by award-winning writer Eley Williams.

Kishani Widyaratna, editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in physical, e-book and audio in the short story collection Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good and in a novel, A Folly, from Lucy Luck at C&W. Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good will publish in spring 2024 and A Folly will publish in 2025.

Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good is described as “rich in masterful characterisation” with stories that “explore uncertainty and how we grapple with it, as well as misunderstandings and confusions in a world that appears bound by rules and codes, both spoken and unspoken”. The collection features the story Scrimshaw which was shortlisted for 2020 BBC National Short Story Award.

A Folly is set in a fictional contemporary Oxfordshire village in the grip of a fevered chess craze. It follows the escalating intrigue as a series of vandalisms are perpetrated in the village, seemingly by someone in the midst of this small community and possibly by one of their very own. What starts out in trivial, petty acts that merely inconvenience steadily becomes more violent and disturbing. As suspicion abounds and begins to unravel the delicate social fabric of their community, the residents are forced to ask: Who is doing these things? How can they be stopped? And, what did we do to deserve this?

A Folly is described as “an utterly gripping, clever, deftly highwire novel that’s perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson, Ali Smith and Eleanor Catton”. Williams was partly inspired to explore the setting in a novel after writing a 10-part story series for BBC Radio 4 called "Gambits" that takes place during a chess craze in what might seem like an ordinary village, that is anything but.

Widyaratna said: “From first encountering her work in The White Review Short Story Prize-shortlisted Smote… all those years ago, to reading her brilliant debut collection Attrib., published so well by Influx, I have long been Eley Williams’ biggest fan. Hers is an essential voice of curiosity, ingenuity and compassionate connection, and we have never needed it more than in our estranged and atomised present. These exceptional new books will not only captivate her many devoted readers, but also take her to a whole new audience across the UK.”

Williams said: “I am delighted to be working with the team at Fourth Estate and count myself very lucky to benefit from all their creative rigour, enthusiasm and ingenuity. So many of my favourite writers have found a home there, including Jon McGregor, Luke Kennard and Owen Booth. I am also very aware of and grateful to both my agent Lucy Luck and Fourth Estate’s commitment to fostering and celebrating the contemporary short story, not least with the 4thWrite Short Story Prize – under their stewardship.”

Williams is the author of a collection of short stories, Attrib. (Influx), which was awarded the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2018. Her debut novel, The Liar’s Dictionary (William Heinemann) won the 2021 Betty Trask Award and was a Guardian Book of the Year. With stories anthologised in The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story (Penguin Classics) and Liberating the Canon (Dostoevsky Wannabe) and shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, Williams is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.