Poetry Live! featuring Olivia Gatwood, Melissa Lozada-Oliva, and the Stanford Spoken Word Collective

Poetry Live! is an evening dedicated to the electrifying power of spoken word poetry. Following the massive success of last year's event, to which Leyla Yilmaz for the Stanford Daily wrote, “The night’s passionate performances reminded me of the resilience that is love,” we are happy to announce the 2nd annual Poetry Live!. Curated by Creative Writing lecturer and former Stegner Fellow Hieu Minh Nguyen, this year’s event will bring together award-winning poets and spoken word artists Olivia Gatwood and Melissa Lozada-Oliva plus members of Stanford's Spoken Word Collective for a series of performances.

Olivia Gatwood is the author of two poetry collections, New American Best Friend and Life of the Party. She has received international recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as a Title IX Compliant educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. Her performances have been featured on HBO, HuffPost, MTV, VH1, and the BBC, and more. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Foundation, Sundance Film Festival, Lambda Literary, and The Missouri Review. Her debut novel, Whoever You Are, Honey, will be released in Summer 2024. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, she lives in Los Angeles.

Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a Guatelombian (Guatemalan-Colombian) American writer poet, novelist, and screenwriter. Her book peluda (Button Poetry 2017) explores the intersections of Latina identity, feminism, hair removal & what it means to belong. Her novel-in-verse Dreaming of You (October 2021, Astra House) is about bringing Selena back to life through a seance & the disastrous consequences that follow. She is the co-host of the podcast Say More with Olivia Gatwood where they dissect the world through a poetic lens. Her most recent novel CANDELARIA (Fall 2023, Astra House) is about a Guatemalan grandmother at the end of the world, and how her granddaughters started it. She has been featured or is forthcoming in NPR, VOGUE, REMEZCLA, PAPER, The Guardian, BreakBeat Poets, Kenyon Review, Vulture, Bustle, Glamour Magazine, The Huffington Post, Muzzle Magazine, The Adroit Journal, and BBC Mundo.