Olivia Gatwood, Life of the Party: Poems

Bookshop welcomes Olivia Gatwood for a reading and signing of her new poetry collection, Life of the Party. A thrilling new voice in contemporary feminist poetry weaves together her own coming of age with an investigation into our culture’s romanticization of violence against women. In precise, searing language—at times blistering and riotous, at times soulful and exuberant—she explores the boundary between what is real and what is imagined in a life saturated with fear.

“Gatwood writes about the women who were forgotten and the men who got off too easy with an effortlessness and empathy and anger that yanked every emotion on the spectrum out of me. Imagine, we get to live in the age of Olivia Gatwood. Goddamn.” —Jamie Loftus, writer and comedian, Boss Whom Is Girl and The Bechdel Cast

“Life of the Party is an electrifying collection of poems about the agonies and ecstasies of being a young woman.” —Leigh Stein, author of Land of Enchantment

“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 resides in these pages.” —Mahogany Browne, author of Black Girl Magic

Olivia Gatwood has received national recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as an educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. She is the author of the poetry chapbook New American Best Friend, and her poems have appeared in such publications as Muzzle magazine, Winter Tangerine, Poetry City, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and The Missouri Review. 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, among other media outlets. She is a full-time touring artist, and has performed at more than two hundred schools and universities worldwide.