Katie Bennett
SHE WAS WILD GRASS
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.
Publication Date: September 8, 2026
ISBN: 979-8-9942826-1-8
5x8 inches, 232 pages
$20
“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 not just to Vollmer but to all those whose spirits and lives have been left out of the canon or otherwise neglected, excised. The book is candid and always compelling. I could not put it down.”
— Chris Kraus, author of The Four Spent the Day Together
“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 based in Philadelphia. She’s published work in Literary Hub, The Rumpus, and swamp pink and received fellowships from Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and Monson Arts. She also spent a decade touring the United States and Europe with various bands and her songwriting has been featured in Pitchfork, SPIN, Rolling Stone, and NPR. She Was Wild Grass is her first book.
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PREORDER BONUS
Preorder She Was Wild Grass before September 8 and receive Notes on Grass, a limited-edition physical zine by
Katie Bennett, mailed exclusively to preorder readers.
Part field journal, part correspondence, Notes on Grass is a behind-the-scenes companion to the book: the research that shaped it, the process that made it, the questions that wouldn't let go. Printed and physical, made to be held. Limited edition, available only with preorder. Note: book and zine shipped separately.
