Headshot: A Novel by Rita Bullwinkel

A March 2024 IndieNext Pick 

“As blazing & distinctive a performance as I’ve beheld in a long while . . . I’m amazed.” —Jonathan Lethem 

An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer” (Lorrie Moore) about the radical intimacy of physical competition 

An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. 

Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, & punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors’ pasts & futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, & force of will required to win. 

Frenetic, surprising, & strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, & sheer physical pleasure that motivates young women to fight—even, & perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.

°°°

Rita Bullwinkel is the author of Belly Up, a story collection that won the Believer Book Award. The recipient of a 2022 Whiting Award, her work has been published in Tin House, Conjunctions, BOMB, NOON, & Guernica. She is editor at large for McSweeney’s, the deputy editor of The Believer, & a contributing editor at NOON. She lives in San Francisco & teaches at the California College of the Arts & the University of San Francisco