Melissa Lozada-Oliva

cThe wonderfully gifted Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a poet and screenwriter, who shot to fame when her poem, Like Totally Whatever, won the 2015 National Poetry Slam Championship, and went viral. Her poetry book Peluda was published in 2017, and her novel-in-verse Dreaming of You came out in 2021. She is also the co-host of Say More podcast with Olivia Gatwood.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Lozada-Oliva began performing slam poetry while attending Simmons University. After she graduated in 2014, she published the chapbooks Plastic Pajaros in 2015 and Rude Girl is Lonely Girl! in 2016. Prior to that her poem Like Totally Whatever went viral after it won the 2015 National Poetry Slam Championship. She enrolled in the MFA programme for Creative Writing at New York University in 2017, and shortly after published her poetry book Peluda. She started a podcast Say More in 2018 with fellow poet Olivia Gatwood. Her work has been featured in many publications, including The Guardian, BreakBeat Poets, Kenyon Review, Glamour Magazine, The Huffington Post, and BBC Mundo. Her latest book, the verse novel Dreaming of You was published in 2021.

Lozada-Oliva regularly connects with her legions of followers and fans through Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, posting pictures and videos about her creative life. She is also available for that personalised shout-out via the Cameo platform, and has an official website, melissalozadaoliva.com.