Staff Pick: Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel
Published on 25th May 2026
Nobody can ever possibly know what a specific body is good at unless they’re inside it.
Rita Bullwinkel’s debut novel is an intimate glimpse into the lives of eight of the best teenage girl boxers in the United States. Set over the course of two days in Bob’s Boxing Palace in Reno, Nevado, these eight girls fight for victory and a sense of identity. For the length of each boxing match, we inhabit the minds and bodies of each of these girls.
For these girls, boxing is a role they can try out during a time of self-exploration. Each girl has a different motivation for boxing and winning. Iggy Lang boxes to be close to her older cousin and fellow competitor Izzy, while Kate Heffer relishes the control that boxing offers. It is an avenue for them to chase certain desires, but also a place where reality comes crashing down on their dreams. Artemis Victor dreams of glory and fame as a boxer, following in the footsteps of her successful sisters, but is instead met with a sun-bleached boxing ring in a run-down gym and a meagre crowd of parents and local journalists. The author paints such an intimate portrait of each girl that you end up rooting for every one of them.
Bullwinkel’s prose mimics the staccato hits of a boxing match and creates an atmosphere that highlights the liminality that is adolescence. It is a brilliant and unique exploration of girlhood and coming-of-age. Headshot is a force of nature from start to finish.
