Olivia Gatwood

Olivia Gatwood’s best-selling debut poetry collection, New American Best Friend (2017), is a tribute to contemporary American womanhood that deconstructs stereotypes from childhood to adulthood, gender to sexuality, violence to joy. The book moves toward celebration, culminating in a series of odes: odes to the body, to tough women, to embracing your own journey in all its failures and triumphs. View her performance of “Ode to the Women of Long Island” here.

Gatwood has received national recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as a Title IX Compliant educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. As a finalist at Brave New Voices, Women of the World and the National Poetry Slam, Olivia is an active member of the slam poetry community and has been featured on HBO, Verses & Flow, Button Poetry and Huffington Post, among others. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Olivia has travelled nationally to perform and teach workshops on gender equality, sexuality, and social justice at over 70 colleges and 30 high schools nationwide.