Skyland: A Novel

by Ann Joslin Williams

Genres: Fiction

344 pages, Paperback

Published May 5, 2026

About the author

Ann Joslin Williams is the author of the novels SKYLAND and DOWN FROM CASCOM MOUNTAIN, and a collection of linked short stories THE WOMAN in the WOODS. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction, the New Hampshire Writers’ Project Literary Awards, and the Stegner Program at Stanford University. Her writing has appeared in many journals including The Sun, Carve, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review and elsewhere. She is an associate professor emerita of English at the University of New Hampshire.

Reviews

[Tim Null · Rating 5 out of 5]

Normally my timing is rather wobbly, but in this case I timed my becoming a fan of Ann Joslin Williams perfectly. That is, I was able to read her collection of linked short stories and her two novels in fast succession. They've left me breathless, but grateful for the experience.

[Sarah Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful writing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[KJ Grow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is exquisite.

I really feel that Ann Joslin Williams is one of the most undiscovered gems in literary fiction. Her writing has such a pristine quality, unfussy and assured, done with a feather-light touch.

The best way I can describe reading Skyland (and Williams' other novel, Down from Cascom Mountain) is that it feels like being held. Williams writes with such tenderness and empathy toward her characters, and as a reader, I just feel this profound sense of trust and being taken care of. She captures the bittersweet truth of the human condition without being sentimental or saccharine. Her books are a balm for the soul and reinforce the patchwork of things that heal our wounds and make life worth living: art, literature, community, the outdoors, friendship, wonder.

Ann Packer gets it right when she says this book is "achingly lovely."

Recommended if you like Ann Patchett, Celeste Ng, Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, Kent Haruf, etc.

Quiet, character and place-driven, but will stay with you a long time. I've read this book twice and loved it the second time even more than the first.

Disclosure: I was the acquiring editor and publisher of this book.

[Alyssa C · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed this read but i felt like the book could have been taken in so many different directions but instead just kind of went no where? interesting plot about grief and life after loss