Tuesday February 27 at 5:30.
"HeadShot!" by Rita Bullwinkel
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE READS OF SUMMER 2024
Named a Best Book of 2024 by The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Time, Elle, Vulture, Lit Hub, and The Guardian
"Make room, American fiction, for a meaningful new voice." --Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review
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, 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 motivate young women to fight--even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.
Hosted by: Aimee Gwynne Franklyn
Aimee Gwynne Franklyn is an independent curator, art consultant and producer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Franklyn is the founding director of Doubleplate Arts (DPA), a private consultancy focusing on mid 20th century and contemporary art, and Doubleplate Productions, an offshoot of DPA, which highlights the work of socially and politically engaged writers, artists and performers who utilize their voices to affect change. She is currently developing a project examining the parallels between book banning in Nazi Germany and the recent proliferation of bans in the United States. Her ongoing research focuses on the community benefits of public art, interdisciplinary collaboration, art-making as a transformative tool for healing PTSD, and the critical role arts education plays in reducing recidivism in the carceral system.