Headshot

Published in 2024, Headshot is the debut novel by American author Rita Bullwinkel. The author drew on her experiences as a young athlete: The format of competitive tournaments directly inspires the structure of the novel, with character portraits aligning into matchups. 

The novel takes place at the fictional 12th Annual Daughters of America Cup, a tournament for teen girl boxers, which is being held in Reno, Nevada. During the fights, the boxers confront their histories and their futures, especially as several contenders realize that the tournament will mark their last attempt at competitive boxing. Bullwinkel’s novel explores themes of self-definition, exploitation in women’s sports, and small glories in the grand scheme of life.

Headshot was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 and for the Dublin Literary Award in 2025.

This study guide refers to the hardcover edition of the novel, published in 2024 by Viking.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, child death, gender discrimination, cursing, bullying, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

The novel chronicles a boxing tournament that takes place over two days. Main chapters depict individual matchups, two interludes mark the end of the semifinal round, and two epilogues conclude the tournament.

The 12th Annual Daughters of America Cup takes place in Bob’s Boxing Palace, a gym located in Reno, Nevada. The first match is between Artemis Victor, the youngest daughter in a boxing legacy family, and Andi Taylor, a lifeguard who is haunted by the death of a child at the swimming pool where she works, as well as the death of her divorced father. Andi wants to win the fight so that she can prove she is capable of willful violence, overwriting her passive experiences of death. Artemis wants to prove that she is as good as her older sisters, former champions of the tournament. Andi manages to land several well-placed hits on Artemis, which provokes Artemis into executing retaliatory strikes that win her the match. Andi decides to retire from boxing. In the future, Artemis will become a wine distributor while Andi finds a career as a pharmacist. Andi will spend the rest of her life finding a place of her own in the world. Artemis will do the same to free herself from her family.

The second match is between Rachel Doricko and Kate Heffer. Kate is a conformist who proves to be the perfect target for Rachel’s worldview: that people like Kate are afraid of things they don’t understand. Kate believes she must win the fight to gain the approval of others, but when Rachel outmatches her, Kate begins to revise her sense of the tournament’s stakes and convinces herself that she must lose to gain her parents’ approval. Rachel wins, seeing her progression in the tournament as a validation of her philosophy. Kate retires from boxing. She will go on to work as a successful event planner.

The third match is between two cousins, Iggy and Izzy Lang. The tournament is Izzy’s last chance to win the championship before she ages out of eligibility. Iggy is willing to throw the match in Izzy’s favor, but wants Izzy to earn her victory because she sees the match as a contest for respect within their family. Izzy has always resented Iggy for following her into the sport. Iggy steps up her boxing game to embolden Izzy to fight back. When Izzy fails to retaliate, Iggy taunts her cousin, hoping that she will remember her loss for the rest of her life. Izzy goes on to work in university admissions, though she will occasionally be reminded of her past as a boxer when she walks by a boxing gym on the way to work.

The fourth match is between Rose Mueller and Tanya Maw. Tanya is traumatized by her mother’s sudden decision to abandon her family, leaving Tanya to the care of her older sister and her father. Tanya takes up boxing to put space between herself and her father after her older sister leaves home. Rose, on the other hand, struggles with her suburban Catholic identity, which will define her for her entire life. Rose accepts the ritual of her religion but finds herself at odds with the way it influences the behavior of her local community. Rose and Tanya are evenly matched, though Tanya’s preoccupation with her past allows Rose to win. Tanya will retire from boxing and pursue a career as an actress, breaking out in her later years when she starts being typecast for grandmother roles. Rose will become an accountant, then start a weight-loss gym with her husband. She will surprise herself when she realizes her body still remembers how to execute her signature move, the leaping left hook.

The semifinal round ends and the tournament breaks for the night. The boxers rest while coaches and league administrators, all men, celebrate the tournament at local casinos and bars.

The second day of the tournament begins with a bout between Artemis and Rachel. Rachel’s philosophy proves ineffective against Artemis at first, but Artemis underestimates Rachel to her own detriment. Rachel’s agility enables her flawed boxing form to overcome Artemis’s perfectionism. Rachel wins the fight, much to Artemis’s dismay. In the future, Rachel will go on to manage a grocery store, where she will naturally fit in.

The next fight is between Iggy and Rose. The spectators initially distract Rose, though she manages to let the transient quality of the boxing match make her feel like she is free from the world. Iggy cannot adjust to Rose’s use of different fighting stances. She resents Izzy for letting her progress and wishes she were fighting her cousin again. Rose wins the match, leaving Iggy bitter about the outcome. Iggy will go on to become a successful private investigator.

The championship bout sees Rachel fighting Rose for the Daughters of America Cup. A Reno journalist named Sam watches the match with awe and is struck by the sense that the last two fighters have collected all the shadows of their previous opponents throughout the tournament. Rachel and Rose are so evenly matched that the bout goes into overtime. Rose narrowly wins the tournament by landing two leaping punches on Rachel.

The end of the novel shows Rachel’s nostalgia for the tournament. When Rachel is in her fifties, her daughter will find the newspaper clipping Rachel has kept reporting the outcome of the tournament. Rachel wonders if Rose would recognize her. Beyond the bounds of the tournament and the lives of the boxers who participated in it, girls will continue to play and fight with one another, even after the institutions that organize competitive events like the Daughters of America Cup have long faded away.