Like, should I get a black shepherd’s crook and bedazzle it? I’ve been making all these jokes about these Bo Peep dresses that everyone’s been wearing since they were released from quarantine so the first thing I did was find a dark Bo Peep dress and I’m going to wear it to the Booker ceremony. I did go shopping for a dress, that made it a little bit more tangible. And also since it happened in the strange liminal stage of the pandemic it does feel like it’s not real. It doesn’t feel very good, it feels huge, it feels like a globe is being blown up inside of you and your body is stretching and your recognisability is suffering, you no longer feel like yourself.

Patricia Lockwood: I feel insane and I want to jump into a well. So, what’s it like being Booker shortlisted? I caught up with Patricia Lockwood over Zoom to discuss her book, her Booker nomination, and the Internet as she sat in front of the pantry in her home in Savannah, Georgia. Quickly the novel becomes a meditation on what happens when someone who is so wholly Online is faced with an extremely Real Life situation. Halfway through, the narrative suddenly twists when the protagonist’s sister receives news of a problem in her pregnancy. The book is so much more than just this, however. Anyone who has been on Twitter during this time will surely recognise the references to washing your legs in the shower and the plums in the icebox. We see her flying all over the world giving talks, participating in panels about digital culture, and ultimately trying to find an answer to the question: can a dog be twins? The novel’s first half is a panoptic survey of the last five years of Twitter, referencing specific days, discourses, and enemies. The book follows a woman who has become famous because of her weird tweets. Much of this migrates to No One is Talking About This, a novel told entirely through dissonant fragments purposefully reminiscent of tweets. Her two published poetry collections, Balloon Pop Outlaw Black and Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals, showcase a writer whose style is reminiscent of John Ashbury but with the playfulness of Frank O’Hara, which is to say, she’s funny complex. And, as if to prove she can absolutely body any form, her first novel No One is Talking About This has been Booker-shortlisted. She is backed up by a body of work that traverses genre, from poetry to memoir and literary criticism. However, Lockwood isn’t your average shitposter. She has also made a superstar out of her cat, Miette, who famously banished Lockwood to jail for “ One Thousand Years!!!!”. Her viral tweets are numerous, such as her evergreen work “ So is Paris any good or not” or recent hits such as “ just envisioned a guy named Croag”. A veteran of Weird Twitter, Lockwood has made a name for herself as one of the funniest and most Online posters out there. If you don’t know Patricia Lockwood, you’ll know her Twitter avatar.

No one is talking about this book