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If A Girl Screams, and Other Poems

Life of the Party

Life of the Party is largely a memoir, with memories of friendship as well as violence&hellip; [It] is also a meditation on Gatwood&rsquo;s obsession with the true crime genre and her long-running fear of male violence.

Life of the Party follows an arc from Gatwood&rsquo;s own adolescence to adulthood... It also asks us to remember the stories of those most vulnerable, the women whose stories are too often ignored.

A reaction to, and a guttural cry against, the fear that shapes so many women&rsquo;s lives. A book that is so very many different things: ferocious, melancholic, wistful, joyful, furious.

I am stirred by the poems in this book &ndash; it is a sharp, unflinching collection of poems about girlhood, wonder, casual everyday violence. Everything true &ndash; and disappointing. Memories that we recognize. Everything tragic, stunning, raw.

Ground-breaking and original poems that candidly face the complications of the female experience, that of negotiating an existence in a world that both excited and terrifies. Gatwood's writing unearths some of my deepest fears as a woman ... These poems &ndash; cautious, direct, brave &ndash; made me face uncomfortable truths, like all great poetry should.

Elaine Feeney, author of How to Build a Boat

Olivia writes about the women who were forgotten and the men who got off too easy with an empathy and anger that yanked every emotion on the spectrum out of me. Her words can &lsquo;make a crop top out of anything,&rsquo; and make you laugh, cry, and walk around the block three times, thinking &lsquo;How did she do that?&rsquo; Imagine our luck, getting to live in the age of Olivia Gatwood. Goddamn.

Life of the Party is an electrifying collection of poems about the agonies and ecstasies of being a young woman.

Olivia Gatwood is a revolution of woman, a flurry of insight harnessing the language of self-assessment and acceptance. Her poems invite a contemporary understanding of sexuality and the feminine form, feminism and inclusion, intersection and advocacy. Her metaphors and images are both breath and being. This book is an offering to the silenced for firepower and reflection. A haystack of hallelujahs reside in these pages.

Olivia Gatwood is the author of two poetry collections, New American Best Friend and Life of the Party. Her debut novel, Whoever You Are, Honey, was released in 2024, which she will also adapt for the screen. She has received international recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as a Title IX Compliant educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. Her performances have been featured on HBO, HuffPost, MTV, VH1, and the BBC, and more. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Foundation, Sundance Film Festival, Lambda Literary, and The Missouri Review. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, she lives in California.

&lsquo;Yanked every emotion on the spectrum out of me&rsquo; JAMIE LOFTUS 
 
In this powerful, candid collection, Olivia Gatwood explores the trials and triumphs of growing up as a woman. 
 
She celebrates the teenage girl and the colour pink while questioning the role that fear and male violence play in who we are and what we become. These piercing poems are at times blistering and riotous, and at times soulful and exuberant. 
 
Balancing singularity of view with a sense of universal experience, Life of the Party is about the pain, the joy, the challenge, the reward of being a girl and a woman in today&rsquo;s world. 
 
&lsquo;Olivia Gatwood is a revolution of woman, a flurry of insight harnessing the language of self-assessment and acceptance&rsquo; MAHOGANY L. BROWNE 
 
&lsquo;Asks us to remember the stories of those most vulnerable, the women whose stories are too often ignored&rsquo; THEM.US 
 
 
&lsquo;An electrifying collection of poems about the agonies and ecstasies of being a young woman&rsquo; LEIGH STEIN

Olivia Gatwood

Set against the backdrop of an AI pioneer&rsquo;s murder, Whoever You Are, Honey is built on simmering tensions at the precipice of boiling over, marked by a distinct strain of techno-pessimism endemic to someone who grew up during the rise of Silicon Valley. The twin themes of women&rsquo;s loneliness and desire are the timeless beating hearts of Olivia Gatwood&rsquo;s debut novel, propped up by of-the-moment ruminations on queerness and artificial intelligence . . . vivid storytelling

Sharp, captivating, and apt - an intimate, pitch-perfect fable of the time, I immediately went back to the start.

A sensual, detail-rich, utterly immersive novel. So propulsive and atmospheric (and at times creepy), I never wanted to put it down and longed for its company when not turning the pages. A gorgeous reading experience

As lush and hypnotic as a dreampop album, this is an intoxicating debut about two women, each carrying a dark secret, who desire more than they've been allowed to want.

A gorgeous, haunting, tender story of women finding different kinds of love and solace in each other, Whoever You Are, Honey looks directly into the deep, dark depths of what makes us alive - and what sustains that life. I loved every minute of it.

Gabrielle Korn, author of Yours for the Taking

Whoever You Are, Honey is a gripping, heartfelt novel, a moving exploration of unconventional friendships and the desire to be accepted and loved &mdash; not in spite of, but because of, our flaws. Every page sparkles with insight about human intimacy, the stories we project onto one another, and the courage to push past first impressions to a deeper, more complicated understanding.

Lush with desire, pleasure, and the deep longing for connection that underlies everything we do, Whoever You Are, Honey makes the familiar new; the everyday is made sensuous, rich, and jewel-bright.

A tender and searching exploration of what it means to inhabit a female body. The characters &mdash; wounded, wounding, and longing for a better world &mdash; will catch you up and carry you along with them.

Here&rsquo;s a novel about the vastness of feeling and friendship - their unruliness a brilliant counterpoint to the glazed screens and aspirations of the modern world.

Gatwood&rsquo;s writing is lyrical, eerily propulsive and addictive. This is the type of novel I&rsquo;m always hoping to find&mdash;I couldn&rsquo;t put it down.

I was beguiled and unsettled by this beautifully written story . . . This is an atmospheric, subtly chilling page-turner for fans of Anna Metcalfe's Chrysalis and Eliza Clark's Penance.

Moving and deeply vital . . . Whoever You Are, Honey is a brilliantly written exposé of the ubiquity and entanglement of the male and technological gazes, and the culture of loneliness and despondency they create. With equal precision and tenderness, Gatwood leads us to the devastating end point of a perfectly constructed life and identity, where only communal recognition and self-love can lead us to the reckoning we need.

Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty

Equal parts provocative and unnerving . . . Gatwood masters the art of foreshadowing

'Built on simmering tensions at the precipice of boiling over . . . vivid storytelling' VOGUE 
 
'An intimate, pitch-perfect fable of the time' YRSA DALEY-WARD 
 
'Sensual, detail-rich, utterly immersive . . . So propulsive and atmospheric' JENNY MUSTARD 
 
*** 
 
BEHIND THIS GLASS, EVERYTHING IS MORE BEAUTIFUL 
 
On the Santa Cruz waterfront, every house is as perfect as the people inside. Not so for Mitty and Bethel, the oddball pair in the dilapidated bungalow – they are the last vestiges of a town now housing the tech elite. But Mitty is about to cross the threshold. Someone has arrived next door who finally wants to know this forgotten girl. 
 
Lena is different and she knows it. Reliant on her entrepreneur boyfriend Sebastian, her life is oddly limited for someone bathed in wealth. But when she sees Mitty, Lena begins to recognize a part of herself she has yet to face, something anxious, something broken – something real. 
And in this salt-blasted town, friendship will bleed into obsession, minds and bodies will betray, and the past will come back with a howl and a bite. 
 
Thrilling, seductive and prescient, WHOEVER YOU ARE HONEY is a blazing debut that dissects perfection, examines how women are made and explores the intersection of passion, technology, and power.

Olivia Gatwood

Praise for Whoever You Are, Honey

Set against the backdrop of an AI pioneer’s murder, Whoever You Are, Honey is built on simmering tensions at the precipice of boiling over, marked by a distinct strain of techno-pessimism ...

Sharp, captivating, and apt - an intimate, pitch-perfect fable of the time, I immediately went back to the start.

A sensual, detail-rich, utterly immersive novel. So propulsive and atmospheric (and at times creepy), I never wanted to put it down and longed for its company when not turning the pages. A gorgeous ...

Set against the backdrop of an AI pioneer’s murder, Whoever You Are, Honey is built on simmering tensions at the precipice of boiling over, marked by a distinct strain of techno-pessimism ...

Sharp, captivating, and apt - an intimate, pitch-perfect fable of the time, I immediately went back to the start.

A sensual, detail-rich, utterly immersive novel. So propulsive and atmospheric (and at times creepy), I never wanted to put it down and longed for its company when not turning the pages. A gorgeous ...

Set against the backdrop of an AI pioneer’s murder, Whoever You Are, Honey is built on simmering tensions at the precipice of boiling over, marked by a distinct strain of techno-pessimism ...

Sharp, captivating, and apt - an intimate, pitch-perfect fable of the time, I immediately went back to the start.

A sensual, detail-rich, utterly immersive novel. So propulsive and atmospheric (and at times creepy), I never wanted to put it down and longed for its company when not turning the pages. A gorgeous ...

Books by Olivia Gatwood

Articles featuring Olivia Gatwood

Short audiobooks you can enjoy in one sitting

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