The Beat Generation—the postwar literary revolution that canonized Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs—has long been mythologized as a story of male genius and rebellion. But behind those iconic names were women whose lives and ambitions were swallowed by the legend. When writer Katie Bennett stumbled across Joan Vollmer, the fascinating woman who shared her life with William S. Burroughs before he shot and killed her in 1951, she couldn't let her go.

In this groundbreaking hybrid memoir, Bennett braids her own artistic coming-of-age with Vollmer's haunting story—exploring what it costs a woman to reach for a creative life, and what gets lost when her story is told only through someone else's. Intimate and unflinching, She Was Wild Grass brings Vollmer out from the shadows while charting the risks and revelations of Bennett's own search for an artistic path.

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.