Brittle Paper’s Writer of the Month for February is Jesimiel Williams!

Jesimiel Williams is a writer and poet from Lagos, Nigeria whose work delves into life, emotions and nostalgia in modern African tales. His writing often centres on themes of mental health, emotional wellness, and human connection, inspired by the complexities of relationships, family, and identity. 

Williams has a Public Relations and Advertising degree from Covenant University, and now he works in the intersection between design and marketing for tech companies. However, outside of this 9-5, he is building an emotional wellness community, called Uncloudy, with his friends. On the weekends, he rewatches Friends and other sitcoms for the thousandth time, argues Church Theology with his siblings, enjoys lunch dates with his friends, and takes quiet walks looking for flowers as pretty as his girlfriend.

You may know Williams’ work from his February story on Brittle Paper, “In Every Language,” but he’s also been published in Tint Journal and Ake Review, and was a finalist for the Gently Rippling Waves Prize 2024, alongside anthologies like The Story Tree and Sink or Swim.

So, without further ado, join us for a little chat with Jesimiel Williams!

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Brittle Paper

Jesimiel, congratulations on being our February Writer of the Month! Your story, “In Every Language,” was my absolute favourite of the past month but, before I ramble about everything I loved about it, we need to introduce you to the readers!

So, can you tell us about what made Jesimiel Williams become a writer?

Jesimiel Williams

Thank you for having me as the writer of the month, I’m always excited for the opportunity to share new stories. I think I have always been drawn to stories.

I remember being 7 or younger and taking off the curtain holders around the house with my brother to craft stories about a clan of snakes exiled from their home. Growing up, I often had very vivid dreams and the desire to put that to paper and tell it the way I liked would eventually lead me to becoming a writer. Now as an adult, it’s become a form of catharsis and introspection for my complex emotions, and a way to connect with my inner child, and give answers to myself to questions I may have.

Brittle Paper

I love when writers say that their vivid imagination as a child evolved into them crafting stories as an adult. I think that’s a brilliant quality from childhood that we too often minimise or get rid of as time goes on.

So, the WotM tradition is that at the beginning of the interview, you answer a few questions to help us get to know your literary personality a bit more. First up, what is the earliest book you remember reading and loving?

Jesimiel Williams

This would be J.M Barrie’s Peter and Wendy. I must have been about 7 or so when the school library was recently updated. I spent my break and after-school period at the library every day until I completed the book. I remember being upset about the ending for days after, but I couldn’t fault the strength of storytelling.

Brittle Paper

I used to have that book growing up and I loved the illustrations, especially the one of Captain Hook and the crocodile that makes the clock ticking sound!

As someone who writes such beautiful depictions of love, is there a book or story you have read that you feel sums up love better than anything you’ve come across?

Jesimiel Williams

I think this would be Francine River’s Mark of the Lion series, starting with A Voice in the Wind. It’s a series I have read multiple times and appreciated every time for how it portrayed unconditional love in families. More importantly, there’s a love between the main character and her love interest that is patient through the changes in their personality until fate brings them back together. For me, it’s a pointer to the fact that we grow into love and the ability to give it back.

Brittle Paper

That’s a beautiful book description of the book!

Now, the final question of the tradition, if you could have a dinner party with your favourite artists, who would they be?

Jesimiel Williams

I love the intersection between storytelling and music, so musical artists like Kendrick Lamar, Asa, Jon Bellion and J. Cole stand out for me, they get the right side of the dinner table. With writers, Chinua Achebe is someone whose writing style I have coveted since childhood, Ted Dekker was a key writing influence in my early years, and Christopher Nolan is a film director I believe is an exceptional creator so they would be there for sure. I would send my final invites to Sefi Atta and Chimamanda Adichie for teaching me to tell African stories because that’s our reality.

Brittle Paper

That’s a full dinner party that’s bound to have interesting conversations!

But now we get to Jesimiel, your piece, “In Every Language,” is such a perfect story to have published in February! You have such a wonderful way of making the reader walk in the shoes of the main character, and it makes the story all the more heartwarming and wholesome.

I always feel bad asking this because writers must be sick of the question but, what inspired you to write this particular story?

Jesimiel Williams

I enjoy talking about my process so I don’t mind it. Honestly? My own love life, and Kendrick Lamar’s “Reincarnated” track inspired it. I started crafting the synopsis for a love story where the characters get separated and return to each other because that’s something I have dealt with. When I began, I remembered that a romantic episode of mine ended and she said, “See you in the next life.” Shortly after, the “Reincarnated” track was playing while I wrote and it talks about characters that repeat the same patterns in multiple lives, and I thought, ‘what could separate lovers more painfully than death?’

Brittle Paper

I read this story when you submitted it, and then I read it a couple more times when I was editing, and once more for this interview, and every single time I love it. I feel like this is one of those short stories that you can always come back to and still love it like you did the first time you read it. There’s a section near the end that reads:

The weavers of the threads of fate are stubborn and egotistical, and when you walk paths away from what they’ve designed, they will force your feet back in place. The memories of our past demises come to me in reveries, and I realize that it’s our crossing paths that often precedes the end of one of our lives. Like a drama, our plot is a short act to amuse the gods of reincarnation before they set us apart again.

I feel like this sums up the story and all the lifetimes of longing and love that the main character lives through. I’ve always been a fan of short stories that don’t have an ‘ending’ because, when done right, it just gives the reader more reason to carry the story with them. And this story doesn’t leave you anxious about not knowing what will happen either because, by the end, you trust he’ll find her again.

Jesimiel Williams

I believe that longing can be a potent drug, and seeing how that reflects in a story where the characters’ lives can go on and on is one of my favorite parts of this story. It also posed a question to me in my own love life: would you give up on life because you’ve failed a few times?

Brittle Paper

So, your Instagram account (I’ll add the link to the Instagram account if you are comfortable with that) has some of your flash non/fiction pieces and I read a couple to get a better idea of your writing but then I ended up reading quite a few more. Like with “In Every Language,” these pieces are just brilliantly written but they also feel so intimate. You have a real knack for writing works that could easily resonate with almost any reader.

I think it’s great that you share your writing so often and so openly. I know some writers struggle with putting their work on display, formally or informally, and others find it helps them build confidence with their writing. There’s also just the want to share what you wrote, and that in itself is enough of a reason.

What made you decide to start sharing your writing online?

Jesimiel Williams

I began writing to share on social channels to document my growth as a writer, but also because creating in public has a way of keeping you accountable to continue honing your growth. Eventually, it became an opportunity for me to introspect and be vulnerable in the open. I think growing up, I struggled to find people who shared the emotions I was dealing with and so, writing in the open helped me find them and connect with them which I found was gold for me.

Brittle Paper

When I was reading some of your works, I stumbled upon the exciting announcement that you are going to be a guest at the Afro Romcon this year! Congratulations on that! You, Tomilola Coco Adeyemo and Modupe Daramola will all be guests which means everyone Brittle Paper loves will be in one place!

How are you feeling about being a guest? And, in case some of our readers are not aware of Afro Romcon, can you tell us a bit about it?

Jesimiel Williams

I’m pretty excited about Afro Romcon, plus the opportunity to panel alongside writers whose work I really admire.

Afro Romcon is a celebration of the romance in the creative arts, mostly literature and film. I think it’s a great opportunity to get to meet and listen to the varying reflections of romance that writers and filmmakers have stories of, and to just see where your own romance story can find community.

Brittle Paper

It sounds like a great and exciting space, and it’s wonderful that you get to be a part of this!

On Friday, your new work will be published. Will it be a love story as well?

Jesimiel Williams

I would say that it’s a story about love and forgiveness. I believe that love has many faces, and forgiveness is one of them. It’s a story of how characters navigate a journey from brokenness by just opening themselves up to what love can be.

Brittle Paper

I’m sure our readers are excited to see it on Friday!

Before we go, apart from your writing, Jesimiel, what is one thing about yourself that you want to share with our readers? Anything.

Jesimiel Williams

I like to think that before I’m a writer, I’m an explorer. I love to explore life in its varying forms, and I think that’s why writing, movies, music and all forms of art draw me in so much because they are lenses of life. This also means that you are likely to run into me at an outdoor event where people are happy and the music sounds good.

Brittle Paper

Thank you for sitting down with Brittle Paper and letting our readers get to know you more. And I hope the Afro Romcon is an amazing time!

 

 

For more of Jesimiel’s work, be sure to check back in on Friday, and for more interviews with our writers, check out September’s with Comfort Shie here.