Ollie O’Neill

Ollie O'Neill is a Femme Dyke, writer, and feminist originally from London.

In 2017, Out-Spoken Press published her pamphlet of poetry Ways of Coping, a poetic research project exploring the relationship between psychiatry, misogyny, and the pathologisation of women who survive sexual violence. In 2020, her first full length collection of poetry What We Are Given was published by Write Bloody UK, looking at identity and horizontal lineage and inheritance.

She has read her work in venues such as The Institute of Contemporary Arts, Soho Theatre, and The Royal Festival Hall, as well as at festivals including Cheltenham Literature Festival, Bradford Literature Festival, and Wilderness Festival. Her work has been published in the likes of Magma, Fourteen Poems, and Bath Magg.

Her work centres around class, Lesbianism, and the female experience. She is also interested in the physicality of text, and how in print making and collage, text becomes a process and a physical object in the world.

Even when I am not writing about being a Dyke, I'm writing about being a Dyke.

I'm intrigued by contemporary fixations on representation and visibility. What does (in)visibility look like? What does representation mean, materially? Who do these things benefit, and who do they inhibit?

Too often now we see Lesbianism and Dykehood reduced and flattened, presented as the most boring and palatable version of itself to the heterosexual masses. Un-sexy, depoliticised, and deliberately so. I believe many of the modern depictions of Lesbianism — which are lauded by some as 'representation' — are attempts to put as many young women off Lesbianism as possible. My work, both in my writing and my life at large, is to do the opposite.

Inspired by the rich and expansive history of Lesbian and feminist writing and publishing, I believe both are a tool for Lesbian liberation and a means with which we can retain autonomy over our lives, our narratives, and be active participants in the archival of our existence. My Independent Research Project Alone, I Felt So Invisible is a series of zines which argue against the idea of Femme invisibility and against the removal of Femme from its cultural and historical context. Inspired by Lesbian and Feminist texts and periodicals such as Sinister Wisdom, Dykes and Gorgons, and Riot Grrrl etc, Alone I Felt So Invisible is entirely DIY - printed, crafted, and curated by hand — and done so exclusively by Dykes.

Dyke It Yourself, you could say.

I believe in steering clear of the academisation and theorisation of actual lives. Lesbianism, Dykehood, Butch-Femme culture - these are not modules for your Queer Theory course, nor ethnographies for you to undertake. They are not distant relics of the past, or a passing fad. I do not believe we are 'just like you'.

I do not wait for nor call upon others to represent me and the women I love — I do so myself.