Olivia Dudding Rodriguez is an Appalachian-grown poet, storyteller, facilitator, and devoted celebrant who has made her home in Eastern Utah. Her writing celebrates rurality, inheritance, and the gravity of relationship. Through her writing, she explores the complexities of heritage, identity, and the symbiosis of place and community. She has spent much of her life contemplating what it means to be from places that are often misunderstood and overlooked. Her poetry seeks to understand the self through the evidence of aftermath.
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Olivia Dudding Rodriguez was a fellow of the 2019 cohort of The Heart of It, a writing retreat founded by Desiree Dallagiacomo. She has since been invited to return to The Heart of It as an Alumni in Residence, Culture Keeper, and Co-Facilitator.
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In her journey as a writer, she has had the opportunity to learn and grow under the wings of wise and beloved community. As a member since 2014 of the River Writers, a writing community in Salt Lake City founded by Nan Seymour, a regular participant of the Undercurrent workshop facilitated by Desiree Dallagiacomo, and more recently, the Book Cliff poets, led by Helper poet laureate Nancy Takacs, Olivia has found a home among fellow writers who have become a source of inspiration and connection in her journey as a poet.
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