A groundbreaking hybrid memoir, She Was Wild Grass deftly intertwines Bennett’s own artistic coming-of-age with the haunting story of Joan Vollmer, the remarkable yet overlooked figure of the Beat Generation whose life was tragically cut short when her husband, William S. Burroughs, shot her in 1951.

 

Braiding past and present, Bennett explores art, ambition, gender, and freedom, asking what it means to create in a world where women’s stories are so often silenced and forgotten. At once intimate and unflinching, it brings Vollmer out from the shadows of literary history while charting the risks and revelations of Bennett’s own search for an artistic path.

 

For readers of Kate Zambreno, Maggie Nelson, and Nathalie Léger, She Was Wild Grass offers an unflinching meditation on art, history, and self-discovery.

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“Katie Bennett’s search for Joan Vollmer is also a search for herself and her own place in the world. She Was Wild Grass is a powerful homage…I could not put it down.”
—Chris Kraus, author of The Four Spent the Day Together

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“Brilliant…I gulped this book down. It’s dense with narrative and goes down like spring water. I couldn’t stop reading it.”
—Sarah Manguso, author of Liars

 

About the author: Katie Bennett is a writer and musician based in West Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in Lit Hub, swamp pink, and Salmagundi. She’s held fellowships from Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and Monson Arts, and she’s a contributing editor for Zona Motel.

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Read now: You can preview Bennett’s work in her new essay, “Self-Portrait at Six Months Pregnant,” appearing in Issue no. 10 of Brink Literary Journal and available now in the journal’s Public Access section.

 

And don’t miss her new interview about She Was Wild Grass, where she discusses the process of bringing Joan Vollmer’s story to light, the intersections of art and womanhood, and the unexpected ways the project reshaped her own artistic vision.