Olivia Gatwood

''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.

A stylish and seductive tale of obsession from the US poet sensation Olivia Gatwood 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.

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.