Patricia Lockwood

Patricia Lockwood is an American poet, essayist, and novelist whose work defies easy categorization — combining surrealist imagery, internet-age wit, and profound emotional intelligence in ways that have made her one of the most singular literary voices of her generation. Born on May 26, 1982, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, she grew up as the daughter of a Catholic deacon who became a priest under an unusual dispensation, and the eccentric household this created — God, guns, Catholicism, and cats — forms the backdrop of much of her writing.

Lockwood came to wide attention with her viral 2013 poem “Rape Joke,” which addressed sexual trauma with a formal daring and dark humor that stunned readers and critics alike. Her poetry collections Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals (2014) and Balloon Pop Outlaw Black (2012) cemented her reputation as a major poet. Her memoir Priestdaddy (2017) — a wickedly funny account of moving back in with her Catholic priest father after her husband’s medical crisis — won the Thurber Prize for American Humor and the Drue Heinz Literature Prize.

Her debut novel No One Is Talking About This (2021) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The novel’s first half captures the fractured, high-speed consciousness of a woman immersed in social media; the second half pivots suddenly into grief and presence when her sister’s unborn child is diagnosed with a rare and fatal syndrome. The novel was praised for its formal invention and for the emotional power of its juxtaposition.

Lockwood is also known for her long-form criticism for the London Review of Books, where her essays on writers including John Updike and Henry Green have been widely shared and admired. She lives and works in Savannah, Georgia, and is regarded as one of the most important writers working in the English language today.