Pip Williams

Born in England, Pip Williams moved to Australia with her family in 1972, where she grew up on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Though Williams was diagnosed with dyslexia at age 17, she maintained a love of reading throughout her youth. After graduating high school in 1987, Williams studied social sciences at the Mitchell College of Advanced Education in Bathurst. Passionate about social justice for elderly women in particular, she went on to earn a PhD in public health from the University of Adelaide. During her time as a social researcher at the University of South Australia, Williams co-authored Time Bomb: Work, Rest and Play in Australia Today (2012) with Barbara Pocock and Natalie Skinner. In 2017, she published One Italian Summer, a nonfiction account of the months she and her family spent working on organic farms in Italy. Williams’s first novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words (2020), won the General Fiction Book of the Year award in the Australian Book Industry Awards as well as the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction. Williams’s second novel, The Bookbinder of Jericho (2023), acts as a companion to her first. Williams has also served as a community planner for Adelaide City Council, where she assisted in the creation of the Adelaide City Library. As of 2024, William lives with her family in Adelaide Hills.