num_pages: 224
description: Venita Blackburn's characters bully and suffer spit and tease mope and blame. They're hyperaware of their bodies and fiercely observant fending off the failures and advances of adults with indifferent ease. In Biology Class they torment a teacher to the point of near insanity while in Bear Bear Harvest(TM) they prepare to sell their excess fat and skin for food processing. Stark and sharp hilarious and ominous these pieces are scabbed bruised and prone to scarring.Many of the stories set in Southern California follow a teenage girl in the aftermath of her beloved father's death and capture her sister's and mother's encounters with men of all ages as well as the girl's budding attraction to her best friend Esperanza. In and out of school participating in wrestling and softball attending church with her hysterically complicated family and dominating boys in arm wrestling she grapples with her burgeoning queerness and her emerging body becoming wary of clarity rather than hoping for it.A rising star Blackburn is a trailblazing stylist and in How to Wrestle a Girl she masterfully shakes loose a vision of girlhood that is raw vulnerable and never at ease.How to Wrestle a Girl is a work of stunning grace and rhythm. In these stories Venita Blackburn reminds us she is a writer unlike any other her stories propelled by voice and wit and harsh beauty. --Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah author of Friday Black: StoriesHilarious tough and tender stories from a farseeing star on the rise
language: English
title: How to Wrestle a Girl: Stories
publisher: MCD x FSG Originals