A dazzling debut collection of raw and explosive poems about growing up in a sexist, sensationalized world, from a thrilling new feminist voice.
iтАЩm a good girl, bad girl, dream girl, sad girl
girl next door sunbathing in the driveway
i wanna be them all at once, i wanna be
all the girls IтАЩve ever loved
тАФfrom тАЬGirlтАЭ
Lauded for the power of her writing and having attracted an online fan base of millions for her extraordinary spoken-word performances, Olivia Gatwood now weaves together her own coming-of-age with an investigation into our cultureтАЩs romanticization of violence against women. At times blistering and riotous, at times soulful and exuberant, Life of the Party explores the boundary between what is real and what is imagined in a life saturated with fear. Gatwood asks, How does a girl grow into a woman in a world racked by violence? Where is the line between perpetrator and victim? In precise, searing language, she illustrates how what happens to our bodies can make us who we are.
Praise for Life of the Party
тАЬDelicately devastating, this book will make us all тАШfeel less alone in the dark.тАЩ тАЭтАФMiel Bredouw, writer and comedian,┬аPunch Up the Jam
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тАЬGatwood 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.тАЭтАФJamie Loftus, writer and comedian,┬аBoss Whom Is Girl┬аand┬аThe Bechdel Cast
тАЬIтАЩve read every poem in┬аLife of the Party. IтАЩve read each of them more than once. In some parts of the book the spine is already breaking because IтАЩve spent so much time poring over it and losing hours in this world Olivia Gatwood has partly created, but partly just invited the reader to enter on their own, caution signs be damned.┬аThis book is enlightening, inspiring, igniting, and f***ing scary. I loved every word on every page with a ferocity that frightened me.тАЭтАФMadeline Brewer, actress,┬аThe HandmaidтАЩs Tale, Orange Is the New Black,┬аand┬аCam