Join us for our fifth NYPS, a one-night-only spoken word competition featuring original works by poets aged 8–24 from across Australia. As part of Powerhouse Parramatta’s opening festival, we’ll be celebrating some of the country’s boldest and most urgent voices.

And making her Australian debut, all the way from the US, is our feature artist: 🥁✨OLIVIA GATWOOD✨🥁

Olivia Gatwood the author of two poetry collections, New American Best Friend (2017) and Life of the Party (2019). Her debut novel, Whoever You Are, Honey (2024) was long listed for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, and named as one of Time Magazine's 100 Best Books of the 2024. She is presently adapting the novel for the screen with Lucky Chap Entertainment. Gatwood has received international recognition for her work as a Title IX Compliant educator, in which she uses poetry as a vessel through which to teach complex topics such as sexual assault prevention, consent, and restorative justice. Her spoken word performances have been featured on HBO, HuffPost, MTV, VH1, BBC, and more. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Foundation, Sundance Film Festival, Lambda Literary, and The Missouri Review. In 2024, she won the Dogwood Fiction Prize for her short story, Bob. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, she lives in Southern California.

DETAILS

🗓️ Wednesday 11th Nov 2026, 7-9pm. Doors open 6:30pm

📍 Powerhouse Parramatta

🎟️ $15 Standard

FREE 16 and under