Patricia Lockwood

Patricia Lockwood is an American poet, comedian, and author best known for her New York Times bestseller, Priestdaddy. She has set the standard for witty and honest writing and her topics often focus on the incongruity of everyday life and the odd intersections of the human experience. She has been featured in The Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The New York Review of Books.

Lockwood was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana and raised in both suburban and rural landscapes. She attended Northwestern University in Illinois as an undergraduate before relocating to Kansas City to attend the University of Missouri’s MFA program. She gained recognition for her first poetry collection, Balloon Pop Outlaw Black, which was published in 2010.

Lockwood was an inaugural editor-at-large for The Rumpus, writing humorous essays and reviews for the site. In 2012, her debut novel Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals was published, birthing her observational humor that she has come to be known for today. This was followed by two chapbooks— Bust Down the Doors in 2014 and Two Sizes Too Big in 2016— released by Airlie Press and Faster Times, respectively.

In 2017, Lockwood’s critically-acclaimed memoir, Priestdaddy, was published and made Library Journal’s Top Ten Debut Authors of 2017 list. The memoir chronicles Lockwood’s life growing up as the daughter of an eccentric Catholic priest, and reviews her turbulent relationship with her God, her parents, and herself. In it, she reflects on the weight of convention and finds humor in the joys and contradictions of her life.

In 2020, Patricia Lockwood released her fourth book of poetry, No One Is Talking About This. The book acts as a collection of tweet-length poems that examine life in an age of digital disillusionment. The poems explore the blur between public life and private moments and capture the experience of living with technology. In this work, Lockwood holds up a mirror to our social media realities and finds beauty in the mundane.

Throughout her career, Lockwood has embraced the unconventional and showcased a differently stylized writing. Her work has been praised by many renowned authors and was even described by Buzzfeed as one of “These Writing Luminaries Who Rule the Internet.” Lockwood continues to be an indelible voice in the literary world, and is an author to watch.