MFA Alum Rita Bullwinkel (’16) Celebrates Success of Latest Novel ‘Headshot’
Congratulations to Vanderbilt MFA Rita Bullwinkel (’16), whose novel is receiving national attention and acclaim.
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, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.
Frenetic, surprising, and strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, and sheer physical pleasure that motivates young women to fight—even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching. (Penguin Random House)
“Make room, American fiction, for a meaningful new voice.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Mesmerizing . . . as tense and disciplined as its characters.”
—Vulture
“Brilliant.”
—The Atlantic
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