My first book, She Was Wild Grass, will be released by Brink Books fall ‘26. The book builds off an essay I published in Lit Hub. Pre-orders will open spring ‘26.

From Brink Books:

We are thrilled to announce Brink Books’ first single title, She Was Wild Grass by Katie Bennett. A groundbreaking hybrid memoir, Bennett deftly intertwines her 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, She Was Wild Grass 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 exploration of art, history, and self-discovery.

Advance praise:

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

"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