Olivia Gatwood

Life of the Party

  • Life of the Party

  • ____________

    "I am stirred by the poems in this book - it is a sharp, unflinching collection of poems about girlhood, wonder, casual everyday violence."
    Yrsa Daley-Ward, author of 'bone' and 'The Terrible'

    In this multi-faceted collection of odes, anecdotes, sonnets and prose, Olivia Gatwood weaves together the trials and triumphs of growing up and explores the many ways that fear and violence can be internalized in a woman's psyche. At times blistering and riotous, at times soulful and exuberant, Life of the Party is about what it means to be a girl and a woman in today’s world and the challenge of briefly being both.

    In powerful, piercingly candid language, Gatwood asks: How does one grow from a girl to a woman in a world wracked by violence? What happens to our bodies that make us who we are? Is this fear really irrational?

    A dazzling collection of raw and explosive poems from a thrilling new feminist voice.

Olivia Gatwood is a poet, author, and speaker from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has received national recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as an educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. Her collections include New American Best Friend and Life of the Party, which published to critical acclaim. As a finalist at Brave New Voices, Women of the World Poetry Slam, and the National Poetry Slam, Gatwood has been featured on HBO, HuffPost, MTV, VH1, and the BBC. She currently lives in Santa Cruz, CA, where she is writing her debut novel, Whoever You Are, Honey.

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