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Poetry Book Club reads Life of the Party

  • Lost City Books 2467 18th Street Northwest Washington, DC, 20009 United States (map)

Join us and our host, Jonny, for the next installment of our Poetry Book Club: Olivia Gatwood's Life of the Party!

About Life of the Party:

i'm a good girl, bad girl, sad girl, dream girl

girl next door sunbathing in the driveway

i wanna be them all at once, i wanna be

all the girls i've ever loved

Lauded for the power of her writing and having attracted an online fan base of millions for her extraordinary spoken-word performances, Olivia Gatwood is a thrilling new voice in contemporary feminist poetry. In Life of the Party, she 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. How does one grow from a girl to a woman in a world wracked by violence? Where is the line between perpetrator and victim? What is the meaning of bravery? Visceral and haunting, this multifaceted collection illustrates that what happens to our bodies makes us who we are.

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This book club will be hosted via ZOOM, a video conferencing app for computers and phones. Open to all -- please just rsvp with a ticket for access to the ZOOM meeting. You can also purchase a copy of the book here which will give you:

  • a copy of Olivia Gatwood's Life of the Party

  • access to the guided ZOOM discussion with our host, Jonny, from Lost City Books

*** We ask that participants be aware that you will need to download the ZOOM app to join the meeting. Within ZOOM, your camera's audio will pull your video to center-screen so it is advisable to set up in a quiet area. Additionally we ask that participants be courteous and take turns speaking/remain aware of your floor time so that everyone can get the most out of the book club experience.