Olivia Gatwood is the author of the new poetry collection Life of the Party. She also has written the chapbook New American Best Friend, and her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Muzzle and Winter Tangerine. She lives in Santa Cruz, California.
Q: In Life of the Party's Author's Note, you discuss your
preoccupation with true crime stories: "I am pummeled by stories of
missing girls, murdered girls, women killed by their revenge-seeking former
boyfriends, and it becomes increasingly difficult to call the murder of women
'rare.'" How did you come up with the idea for this poetry collection?
A: A poetry collection is just physical evidence of
whatever a writer is obsessed with, I think. In that way, it wasn't an idea. It
just was. It was what I had to do, it was the only thing I could say.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify
for you?
A: Life of the Party is the last line in the first poem, “Girl,”
which I think functions as more of an anthem than anything else. I wanted the
title to be something playful, something exciting, to offset how - quite
frankly - sad the book is.
But it's also commentary on the phrases people always say
about dead girls. Since writing the book, so many people have sent me articles
about murdered women that describe them as “the life of the party.” I'm curious
about these recycled phrases - I think they function often - whether a consumer
realizes or not - as a signifier that this is the girl you should mourn. The
girl everyone wanted to be friends with, the girl everyone wanted to be.
Q: How did you decide on the order in which the poems would
appear?
A: It took forever. Not only is it a long collection of
poems, but it's one that relies heavily on a sensical narrative arc. What it
came down to was really looking at the poems as memories and remembering how
they happened and in which order.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the collection?
A: I want people who don't or haven't experienced the things
that this book talks about to use this book as an opportunity to learn about an
experience of the world that they, personally, play a role in and can help to
alleviate. And I want the people who do see themselves in this book to know
that they are not irrational or alone.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A novel that sort of walks the line of horror. I've never
written horror before and it is so much freaking fun.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I'm going on a nationwide tour this September and I'll
probably be in a city near you. You can get tickets here.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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