“I want to oﬀ er people what I felt writ-
ers oﬀ ered me when I was young,” she
said.
Williams, a professor of literature at
New York University Abu Dhabi, has
never been to the Long Beach Peninsula
or Astoria area before.
She said she applied for the residency
because she wants to discover a new part
of the world that is doing so much good in
the world of the arts.
Venturing to parts unknown also aligns
itself well to the topic of her novel, which
is a historical ﬁ ction piece about Hes-
ter Stanhope, who ﬂ ed England in 1809
searching for alternatives to her life as
a poor aristocrat. She went on what she
thought was a vacation to the Leba-
non area and never returned home, Wil-
liams said. This is a woman who went on
great adventures and explored parts of the
world and did exciting things in a time
when most women were not doing any-
thing of the sort, Williams said. Stanhope
did many things that sound like ﬁ ction,
but the best part about all of it is that it’s
all true, she said.
In reading about her, Williams became
fascinated by Stanhope and decided to
turn her story into a novel.
The idea of what it means to be a
woman and have ambition is still some-
thing very relevant in the year 2021, so
long after Stanhope lived in the early
1800s, Williams said.
Williams has gone through several ver-
sions of the novel but hopes to ﬁ nish one
ﬁ nal overhaul of the novel during her
residency.
This is hardly Williams’ ﬁ rst foray into
writing.
“I’ve written stories since I could write
letters,” she said.
She’s a literature professor by training,
has written a blog and is an essayist. She
loves all forms of writing but said she’s
happy to come back to ﬁ ction now.
Her life in Abu Dhabi, where she’s
been for 10 years, also sort of aligns
with Stanhope’s life, she said. She and
her husband, a fellow professor, moved
to Abu Dhabi with their young children on
what they thought would be a
one-year adventure. Now, it’s been a
decade. She ﬁ nds the school exciting
because in class there are people from
all diﬀ erent backgrounds all learning and
talking together.
“The students come from literally all
over the world,” she said.
Deborah L. Williams
Continued from Page 6
Buckmaster said she’s been wanting
to write this novel since the idea came to
her about 10 years ago and while she’s
worked on it, it’s time to focus, ﬂ esh out
the story and round oﬀ her ﬁ rst draft.
“I’ve always been interested in the idea
of mental health,” she said.
A lot of people don’t realize how com-
plex mental health issues can be, she
said. The story poses the question about a
world where “toxic positivity is taken too
far,” Buckmaster said.
Even if nothing happens with the book,
Buckmaster said she is glad she is getting
the chance to write it.
“I feel this story needs to be written,”
she said.
She looks forward to living among
writers, as a writer instead of an observer,
and taking the chance to soak in that cre-
ativity and environment.
Buckmaster reads her work aloud last
Saturday at Astoria Visual Arts. It was
the ﬁ rst time she read any part of the
novel out loud to a live audience. It’s
nerve-wracking, she said, to share some-
thing personal with an audience.
Writing is always something Buckmas-
ter has been drawn to. She said when she
was a kid, she would ﬁ nd comfort and
safety in the books she was reading.
“There is a comfort in an imaginary
world where you can explore and just be
yourself,” she said.
She hopes as a writer to create that
same sort of safe space for a reader.
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THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2021 // 7