Conundrums: Stories of Law & Justice is a short-story collection by Easy Waters, the literary pen name of William Eric Waters. Through stories of imprisonment, law, institutional power, moral ambiguity, accountability, memory, redemption, and resilience, the collection asks what justice means when both human beings and the institutions judging them are imperfect.
About the Book
Conundrums places human beings inside the consequences of law and punishment rather than treating justice as an abstraction. The collection contains ten stories plus one bonus story. Across them, Waters tests the boundaries between legal and moral judgment, asking whether punishment can coexist with rehabilitation, whether people can be more than their worst acts, and what redemption might require after harm.
Major Themes
- Law, justice, and the criminal legal system
- Imprisonment and its human consequences
- Institutional power and individual responsibility
- Accountability, punishment, and mercy
- Race, memory, and social judgment
- Redemption, second chances, and resilience
Reviews and Reception
Read Dr. Mark Chapman’s review, “Short Stories that Challenge the Legal System”, and “What Customers Are Saying About Conundrums.”
The Conundrums Quotation Project
The Conundrums Quotation Project extends the book’s questions through a continuing Ezwwaters.com series. Entries begin with passages from the collection and develop reflections on justice, punishment, incarceration, accountability, redemption, institutional life, and the moral questions raised by the stories. Read “The Conundrums Quotation Project — Origins.”
Publication Identity
Author: Easy Waters
Genre: Short-story collection
Also known as: William Eric Waters
Easy Waters is the pen name used by William Eric Waters for his book-length fiction and some earlier prison writing. Conundrums belongs to a larger body of work in which literature, criminal-justice scholarship, and professional experience converge around punishment, institutional power, accountability, and human possibility.
William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters 