A short life of the author
Patricia Lockwood (born 1982) is a writer who has managed what few literary figures achieve: genuine relevance to both the poetry world and the mainstream literary marketplace, and to the culture of the internet without being swallowed by it. Her work moves between poetry, memoir, and fiction with a voice that is unmistakable — hyperverbally inventive, sexually frank, emotionally acute, and structurally daring.
Life and Career
Lockwood grew up in a Catholic family in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and later in various Midwestern cities. Her father was a Catholic priest — married and ordained under a special dispensation after converting from Lutheranism — a biographical fact that sounds like a novel premise and became the basis for her memoir Priestdaddy (2017). She attended public school and briefly attended a Catholic college but is largely self-educated as a writer.
She gained early attention in the poetry world with her collections Balloon Pop Outlaw Black (2012) and Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals (2014). The latter contained “Rape Joke,” a poem that went viral in 2013 — a long, discursive piece that treats sexual assault with a combination of fury, dark comedy, and structural audacity that no one had quite managed before. The poem was shared hundreds of thousands of times online and made Lockwood one of the few living poets to reach a genuinely wide audience.
Priestdaddy (2017) — about moving back in with her parents as an adult, centering on her gun-loving, guitar-playing, profoundly strange Catholic priest father — was a critical sensation. It won the Thurber Prize for American Humor and was widely described as one of the funniest memoirs in years, but its comedy carries serious exploration of faith, family, sexuality, and the particular oddness of growing up Catholic in America.
No One Is Talking About This (2021), her first novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is structured in two halves: the first is a fragmented, associative immersion in the experience of living online — “the portal” — rendered in tweet-length paragraphs that capture the addictive rhythms of social media. The second half pivots to the birth of a family member’s baby with a fatal genetic condition, and the novel suddenly becomes a devastating meditation on embodied reality, love, and mortality. The structural contrast — between the disembodied chatter of the internet and the overwhelming physical fact of a dying child — is the novel’s central argument.
Style and Significance
Lockwood writes in a register that did not exist before her. Her sentences are associative, image-dense, and frequently hilarious, but they are underpinned by genuine lyric skill — she has perfect pitch for sound and rhythm. She is one of the few writers who has found a literary form adequate to the experience of living online without either celebrating or condemning it.
Key Works
- Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals (2014)
- Priestdaddy (2017)
- No One Is Talking About This (2021)
Collecting Lockwood
Balloon Pop Outlaw Black (Octopus Books, 2012) — small-press poetry debut — is very scarce in first edition, $100–$300. Priestdaddy first edition (Riverhead, 2017) signed brings $50–$150. No One Is Talking About This first edition (Riverhead, 2021) signed has a Booker shortlist premium, $75–$200. Lockwood signs at events and festivals. Her market is early-stage; debut titles are the strongest long-term prospects.