Author Biography
Born in 1983 and raised in the small Somerset village of Hutton, England, Emmah Williams was a girl who lived to read. Ever since her father read to her each night with books of stories and poetry, Emmah has been hooked to the mysteries of the written and spoken word. Emmah has captured this with her poem A Father’s Gift.
A lover of languages; Emmah’s fascination into language truly began when she studied Italian at her secondary school. Despite a lack of formal tutorage, Emmah’s drive and determination overcame this formidable obstacle, and she went on to receive a formal award from the Languages Department recognizing her achievements at the GCSE Award Ceremony in 2000.
The first film of The Lord of the Rings sparked and renewed Emmah’s interest in language. She was delighted and intrigued by the use of Sindarin and Quenya, constructed languages of Middle Earth, in the movie.
“At this time I was increasingly fascinated by culture and communication,” Emmah explains. “I loved the use of Quenya and Sindarin in the LOTR movies because they take you deep into Tolkien’s creation. They remind us that Tolkien knew his world was not just about the landscapes and adventures; it is about the people. Communication is all about people. It makes sense to give life to a fictional race of people by giving them the gift of their own language. The elven tongue is beautiful!”
It was in the same year, 2001—2002, that Emmah read her first novel in the fantasy genre: Raymond E Feist’s Magician, which became the main spur of inspiration for writing fantasy. Emmah began Monsoon Prophet and City of Exiles, works-in-progress, based in a world created from the whole cloth of her imagination. World building is not easy, in fact it is a time-consuming task and Emmah quickly realized the need to study fantasy worlds and their construction. So while continuing her A-Level studies, Emmah began a diligent study into ancient cultures, medieval laws and customs, investigating a multitude of language systems including Quenya and Sindarin to earthly languages such as Welsh, Latin, Urdu Script, Hindi Script and Gaelic. When Emmah passed her A Levels, one of the library staff from the Sixth Form left a note in Emmah’s Yearbook, urging simply: “Write that book!”
Following her world building interest, an online quest in 2002 led Emmah to the Fargoth World Building Project where she is Assistant Editor for the site’s content and also Moderator and Language Editor of another site she founded to create constructed Languages for the imaginary world of Belandir.
Emmah took her personal culture and language studies to an academic level by going to the University of the West of England where she is engaged in an Honours Degree in Spanish and European Studies, as well as, Linguistics and Latin American Studies. All of which continue to contribute and aid her own research into her novels and poetry. As Emmah works through these, she is also working with NDK Creative Artist, author of The Helm & the Horde, to develop the language of A’Naalfar which will be released with the Helm & Horde Companions, and at this time is developing the principles of Prosumerism with Maarten Jordens and NDK.
Official Website
Visit Emmah Williams's official website.