Nora J. Williams
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norajw.bsky.social
Nora J. Williams
@norajw.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.7K following 410 posts
Academic & theatre kid| Canonical Misogyny out now from Edinburgh UP! | less funny half of @nashaxpodcast.bsky.social | she/her | 🇱🇧
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norajw.bsky.social
I've seen so many people fall into the trap of ceding ground on immigration by agreeing that "illegals" shouldn't be allowed. But it's never about a legal pathway. It's about racism and white supremacy.

"Culturally coherent" isn't even a dog whistle ffs -- it's loud and clear.
Lam told the Sunday Times she believed large numbers of people with legal status in the UK would need to have their right to stay revoked and should "go home" She said: "There are also a large number of people in this country who came here legally, but in effect shouldn't have been able to do so. It's not the fault of the individuals who came here, they just shouldn't have been able to do so. "They will also need to go home. What that will leave is a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people."
October 21, 2025 at 7:13 AM
norajw.bsky.social
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

Thrilled to announce that A Two Woman Hamlet is going to #colchfringe25!

Casting got each performance will be announced soon...
Graphic indicating that we are performing at the Colchester fringe festival, 24 October to 2 November 2025. Image is of white text against a bright purple background Information about A Two Woman Hamlet at Colchester Fringe, performances at the Headgate Theatre (Main), 24 October at 7pm, 29 October at 10pm, and 29 October at 7pm. Image is of a feminine hand and forearm holding out a prop skull. The arm has flowers drawn on it. The background is a coral orange/pink colour. It includes a QR code leading to the ticket booking page.
August 22, 2025 at 11:50 AM
norajw.bsky.social
Do you think it's the same consultants who convinced Essex uni to go with "impatient" as their marketing keyword for almost three years, and produced this abomination?
A bright pink advertising poster, with large letters reading, inexplicably, "impatient to challenge why?"
July 22, 2025 at 3:38 PM
norajw.bsky.social
I found my new favourite sarcastic meme this week. I cackle every time I see it
A pizza cutter wheel framed by the words, "look at you: all edge. No point."
July 22, 2025 at 1:37 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Just 9 days left on our crowdfunder for A Two Woman Hamlet! Every £ makes a difference to help us get to Camden Fringe. click.hubbub.net/p/2womanhaml...
Text at top of image: "this is the hamlet I've been waiting for my whole life", from a Lakeside theatre audience member. Image is an apricot background, with an arm covered in drawings of flowers holding out a prop skull. There is a QR code to the ticket page at the bottom of the image
July 8, 2025 at 6:28 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Really looking forward to visiting the @tapra.bsky.social Theatre and Performance Histories working group later this week, to give a talk on Ophelia's Laborious Afterlives!

Wednesday 4 June @ 5:00 - all are welcome! Email theatrehistory@tapra.org for the link
Photo of a laptop screen, using Microsoft PowerPoint. In view is a slide draft with images of six different representations of Ophelia in fine art and performance art, each responding in different ways to John Everett Millais' pre-Raphaelite depiction
June 1, 2025 at 10:44 AM
norajw.bsky.social
Feels like a good day to share my favourite Columbus shade, thrown by seventeenth-century wife guy the Duke of Newcastle in a poem written for his wife - Margaret Cavendish - and her incredible work The Blazing World

"That Columbus guy just stumbled upon a continued but you MADE a WORLD, babe"
To The Duchesse of Newcastle, On Her New Blazing-World. Our Elder World, with all their Skill and Arts, Could but divide the World into three Parts: Columbus, then for Navigation fam'd, Found a new World, America 'tis nam'd; Now this new World was found, it was not made, Onely discovered, lying in Time's shade. Then what are You, having no Chaos found To make a World, or any such least ground? But your Creating Fancy, thought it fit To make your World of Nothing, but pure Wit. Your Blazing-World, beyond the Stars mounts higher, Enlightens all with a Celestial Fire. William Newcastle.
April 27, 2025 at 8:40 PM
norajw.bsky.social
A Two Woman Hamlet is going to @camdenfringe.bsky.social as part of Shakefest @ Old Red Lion Theatre!

12-14 August, all shows at 18:30, with Sharmila Peake, Deanna Strasse & Lolly Taylor as a rotating cast 💀🌸

Tickets £8/£5 concession and available exclusively through the Camden Fringe website
Sharmila Peake as Hamlet/Gertrude and Deanna Strasse as Claudius in a rehearsal photo from an earlier run of A Two Woman Hamlet, with a Camden Fringe branded frame and a QR code to the ticket booking page Information about casts for each show, as follows: Tuesday 12 August, 18:30 - Sharmila Peake and Deanna Strasse Wednesday 13 August, 18:30 - Lolly Taylor and Deanna Strasse Thursday 14 August, 18:30 - Sharmila Peake and Lolly Taylor
April 25, 2025 at 11:21 AM
norajw.bsky.social
If sex can't be determined by a quick visual assessment (which, I agree, it can't!), how do you propose to identify who does and doesn't fit your definition of "female"? Am I submitting to genetic analysis every time I need the loo?
"clocking someone" as something doesn't make them more or less that thing.
April 17, 2025 at 12:03 PM
norajw.bsky.social
All conferences should be followed by a week of holiday... jumping late on the bandwagon to celebrate #shax2025! A special thank you to my fellow panelists @drpetekirwan.bsky.social, MJ Kidnie, & Ray Proctor -- it's an honour to share space and think with you all
Me (Nora Williams), Pete Kirwan, Ray Proctor, and MJ Kidnie gathered together before our panel
March 29, 2025 at 5:28 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Hello, Ealing
A patch of grass in Ealing, London, covered in purple, white and yellow crocuses
February 27, 2025 at 10:48 AM
norajw.bsky.social
When in doubt, bake bread
A sesame and honey loaf, nestled in a blue Dutch oven
February 22, 2025 at 9:06 PM
norajw.bsky.social
This, from @adriennemareebrown.bsky.social's Pleasure Activism, is sitting powerfully with me this week.
Image of a page from adrienne maree brown's book Pleasure Activism, with the following text underlined: "I believe that all organizing is science fiction—that we are shaping the future we long for and have not yet experienced. I believe that we are in an imagination battle, and almost everything about how we orient toward our bodies is shaped by fearful imaginations."
January 20, 2025 at 9:25 AM
norajw.bsky.social
When he says "masculine energy" this is all I can think about
Page from the boom Canonical Misogyny: Shakespeare and Dramaturgies of Sexual Violence: Depending on its application, this naturalistic, psychologically consistent acting style can demand that an actor efface themselves in service of the character because there should be no discernible dif-ference, to an audience, between actor and character. Emblematic of this perspective ad absurdum is American director Paul Barry's opinion that 'nothing works but a good actor in a bear suit' for representing the well-known bear, by which Antigonus exits pursued, in The Winter's Tale (Barry 224). For Barry's 2002 production for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, actor David Austen-Gruen observed bears' behaviour at the zoo and approached his role 'as he would any other, asking himself, "What does the Bear want? What does the Bear need? What are his objectives, his obstacles, his adjust-ments?'' (224). As per Pavis's definition, the character as conceived under naturalism 'denies that it is an artificial construction' - even in an ursine walk-on part.
January 15, 2025 at 4:11 PM
norajw.bsky.social
I'm gonna assume he hasn't read it... 😅🤮

(blocked, obv)
Screenshot of a reply to my previous skeet, from dookiemanlaflare.bsky.social: "I can ease your stress by eating you from the back and spreading your cheeks with my tongue all down your crack until you climax"
January 5, 2025 at 4:20 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Me, smiling big with my book in my hands
January 5, 2025 at 4:15 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Without downloading any new pics, what's your energy going into 2025?
My niece Lenny (a springer spaniel), tongue out, looking up at the camera and moving her best life
December 29, 2024 at 6:35 PM
norajw.bsky.social
They're heeeeeere!!!
Photo of me (white presenting woman with dark features in a mustard jumper and multi coloured scarf) holding my new book, which has a vibrant red cover. Author copies fanned out on a wooden dining table. Book title is Canonical Misogyny: Shakespeare and Dramaturgies of Sexual Violence by Nora J. Williams. It has a vibrant red background, with an image of an actor playing Isabella in Measure for Measure
December 11, 2024 at 8:46 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Show me a picture on your phone that has your energy that isn’t a selfie
A wawawiwa comic with four panels. Panel 1: a carved pumpkin with a cheerful face is reading a book Panel 2: pumpkin walks away from the book, looking frustrated Panel 3: pumpkin takes of their top and puts a candle into their head Panel 4: pumpkin reads contentedly, with light shining from their eyes
November 27, 2024 at 6:39 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or informed you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#Books
#BookSky 💙📚
#BookChallenge

10/20
A Sky Beyond the Storm, by Sabaa Tahir. Special edition cover with bright purple background and gold line drawings of crossed swords
November 24, 2024 at 10:25 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or informed you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#Books
#BookSky 💙📚
#BookChallenge

9/20
Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng. Background image is of an idyllic suburban neighbour hood, with saturated green grass and trees and large houses on wide roads
November 23, 2024 at 4:04 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or informed you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#Books
#BookSky 💙📚
#BookChallenge

8/20
Cover of The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. Gold badge announces that it is the Winner of the Hugo Award. Background image is of grey-blue stone, with an intricately-carved decoration in the bottom left corner.
November 22, 2024 at 9:50 AM
norajw.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or informed you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#Books
#BookSky 💙📚
#BookChallenge
A plan black cover with a white silhouette of a raven, and the title: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Author Susanna Clarke
November 21, 2024 at 3:02 PM
norajw.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#Books
#BookSky 💙📚
#BookChallenge

6/20
Mexican Gothic, A New York Times Bestseller, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Background image is a brown-skinned woman sitting. Her head is cut out of the frame. She is wearing a garnet-coloured off the shoulder dress with a lot of volume in the skirt. She is holding what look like yellow flowers. There is a green wallpaper in a floral pattern behind her.
November 20, 2024 at 8:43 AM
norajw.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#Books
#BookSky 💙📚
#BookChallenge

5/20
Title: The City of Brass, by S. A. Chakraborty. Background image is of a good mandala overlaid with a tall, vertical flame. At the bottom is a gold skyline, with a small human figure standing in the centre
November 19, 2024 at 1:03 PM