Rita Bullwinkel

Rita Bullwinkel is the author of two books: Headshot (2024) and Belly Up (2018). Headshot was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize. It was also longlisted for the Booker Prize and the Dublin Literary Award. In 2025, Bullwinkel was awarded the Addison M. Metcalf Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which biennially honors a young American writer of great promise. She is also a 2022 recipient of a Whiting Award, the editor of McSweeney’s Quarterly, a contributing editor at NOON, the creator of Oral Florist and the former deputy editor of The Believer. A selection of each McSweeney’s Quarterly issue she edits is produced for audio by the New York Times. In addition to editing McSweeney’s Quarterly (the house’s magazine of art and literature) she also edits one book-length work a year for McSweeney’s Book Division. Books for which she has served as editor have been longlisted for the National Book Award and named a “Best Book of the Year” by the Chicago Review of Books. Bullwinkel lives and works in San Francisco.