Rita Bullwinkel Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Rita Bullwinkel is reputed American writer of short stories and science fiction books. She is particularly famous for writing the short story collection called Belly Up. This collection has won the Believed Book Award in 2018 and is now in the process of being translated into Greek and Italian. The written works of author Bullwinkel have appeared in various literary magazines such as Bomb, Noon, Conjunctions, Guernica, Tin House, and Vice. Bullwinkel is the recipient of fellowships and grants from Brown University, Hawthornden Castle, The MacDowell Colony, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and Vanderbilt University. Her fiction and subsequent translations have received nominations for the Pushcart Prizes. Bullwinkel has earned high praise from numerous critics and literary personalities for her debut fiction. They include Jeff Vander Meer, Deb Olin Unferth, Lorrie Moore, and others.

The stories in the collection immerse the readers in the neediness and fragility of the human body. The humor, an ear for language, and an eye for unusual detail of author Bullwinkel can be seen very well in Belly Up. She appears to have a deep feeling of empathy that makes her an excellent conversationalist and generous friends. Through her work, Bullwinkel likes to channel the work of middle-aged men, teenage girls, widows, the dead, and the dying. Even though Bullwinkel has developed a great interest in writing in the past few years, she did not starts writing until she joined the college. Prior to that, she had not read any book or story of fiction. In fact, she did not like fiction at all. The activities that she was mostly involved in during his younger days include making her clothes, painting and making furniture from broken surfboards, etc. Bullwinkel liked making things out of nothing.

The thing that she liked the most in her childhood was sports. In college, she was included in the team of water polo. Bullwinkel played this sport for all 4 years of college. Now, she sees it as a completely irrational and insane thing to have done. Bullwinkel does not have any connection to that part of her identity now. Bullwinkel believes that reading and writing were intertwined for her. She decided to become a writer only after she turned in an obsessive reader. Bullwinkel doesn’t know why she possesses the desire of writing things but feels that it helps her remain more human. Bullwinkel likes to give the credit for this to being an athlete. She sees water polo as a brutal sport. Before picking up the pen to write her first story, Bullwinkel worked several retail jobs and felt that she was only meant to be a decorative piece and fulfill the purpose of enhancing the purchasing experience of the consumers.

Author Bullwinkel thinks there are both good and bad things about being able to change yourself completely. She also thinks it is very dangerous to do so. Whenever Bullwinkel sits down to write a story, she tries to make it compelling for the audience. Since college, she has gone through a lot of changes in her writing style. Earlier, her stories used to be very short. But now, she attempts to write long stories. Now, Bullwinkel feels she can hold an entire book inside her, which she wasn’t able to do 10 years ago. Bullwinkel is grateful to all the readers for liking her work and appreciating her writing skills. She is hopeful that they will continue to read her book and make it even more successful. She is also thankful to all those critics who have spoken highly of her book.

Bullwinkel looks forward to writing many more books of fiction in the years to come and keep entertaining her supporters for as long as she can. She has also decided to have interactions with them both online and offline so that she can take note of their important suggestions and use them for improving her writing and storytelling skills. Until then, Bullwinkel hopes that the readers will continue to read her already published debut book and help it in reaching out to a large number of readers in all parts of the world. Bullwinkel is currently working on another book and is expected to release it as soon as she finishes the writing and editing part.

The debut book written by author Rita Bullwinkel is entitled ‘Belly Up’. It was released by A Strange Object publication in 2018. This book is actually a collection of several short stories that comprise of mediums, ghosts, obsessed lovers, teenage girls, carnivorous churches, and gulag prisoners. The teenage girls think of themselves as plants, the lover is obsessed with harps tuning sound, while the gulag prisoners tend to outsmart a hateful warden. Throughout the tender ad grotesque stories, the characters are shown questioning the bodies provided to them and try to find what their bodies are required to be sustained. The collection is seen as an intersection of the real and the surreal, and a unique space has been carved out between the two by author Bullwinkel in which the strange, the frolic, and mundane cohabitate.

Based on the precise, sharp writing and the careful observations of the condition of humans provided in this collection, it can be said that a major has emerged in the form of author Bullwinkel. The stunning stories described in the collection take place in spaces between ordinary events and objects. These stories are strange, fearlessly funny, and mysterious in expressing human isolation. The stories also contain existential surprises about great literature. This powerful debut by author Bullwinkel shows what unusual gift she possesses as a writer. Each of the stories described by Bullwinkel is diverse and all of them share a uniform narrative voice that looks perfectly authentic. In fact, all of the short stories are female-centric. The one in which young girls are shown discussing cannibalism particularly seems disturbing.

Overall, the narrative is imaginative, unusual, and very well-written. Most of the endings seem to be anti-climactic. The critics believe that this anthology has more hits than misses. Several other critics believe that this collection is incredibly eclectic and contains some brilliantly crafted stories. The stories are beguiling, charming, enticing, and unsettling. There is diversity in the collection that makes it even more unique and wonderful. The prose penned by Bullwinkel is utterly honest, hilarious, and tragic at the same time.