Melissa Lozada-Oliva (born September 7, 1992)^[1] is an American poet and educator based in New York. Her poem "Like Totally Whatever" won the 2015 National Poetry Slam Championship and went viral.^[2][3][4][5]

Lozada-Oliva was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, by immigrant parents; her mother is Guatemalan and her father is Colombian.^[6][7] She attended college at Simmons University, where she began to perform slam poetry, and graduated in 2014.^[8]

After graduation, she published the chapbooks Plastic Pajaros in 2015 and Rude Girl is Lonely Girl! in 2016. Her performance of a poem called "Like Totally Whatever" won the 2015 National Poetry Slam Championship and received mainstream media coverage.^[1][2]

Lozada-Oliva enrolled in New York University's MFA program for Creative Writing in fall 2017. As of spring 2019, she was also teaching a class there.^[9] She published Peluda through Button Poetry shortly after enrollment. In it, Lozada-Oliva "explores, interrogates and redefines the intersections of Latina identity, feminism, hair removal & what it means to belong."^[9]

In December 2018, Lozada-Oliva started a podcast called Say More along with her best friend and fellow poet Olivia Gatwood. The pair interview each other on topics and answer questions from listeners.^[10]

Her verse novel Dreaming of You was published by Astra House in 2021.^[11][12] In 2023, her first prose novel Candelaria was published by Astra House.^[13]

• 2015 National Poetry Slam Championship^[9]
• Brenda Moosey Video Slam winner^{[citation needed]}