{"id":158205,"date":"2022-04-06T07:20:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T11:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=158205"},"modified":"2022-04-07T15:45:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T19:45:08","slug":"rita-bullwinkel-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Rita Bullwinkel. Photograph by Beowulf Sheehan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rita Bullwinkel is the author of the story collection <\/em>Belly Up, which won the 2018 Believer Book Award. Bullwinkel\u2019s writing has been published in <\/em>Tin House, <\/em>The White Review, <\/em>Conjunctions, <\/em>BOMB, <\/em>Vice, <\/em>NOON, and <\/em>Guernica. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from MacDowell, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, Hawthornden Castle, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Both her fiction and translation have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She is an editor at large of McSweeney\u2019s and a contributing editor of\u00a0<\/em>NOON. She lives in San Francisco and teaches at the California College of the Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/em><\/p>\n

From \u201cArms Overhead\u201d:<\/p>\n

Mary read to Ainsley.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t pause between the pages,\u201d Ainsley instructed. \u201cIt interrupts the story. You have to read ahead a little or slow down your speech while you\u2019re flipping, so you can say the sentence that straddles the pages without a noticeable break.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary read, \u201cThe ouroboros slays, weds, and impregnates itself. It is man and woman, begetting and conceiving, devouring and giving birth, active and passive, above and below at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d Ainsley said. \u201cThat makes perfect sense to me.\u201d \u201cDoes it, though?\u201d said Mary. \u201cHow can it mate with itself?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts its tail in its mouth, that\u2019s how.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it metaphorically reproduces,\u201d said Mary.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be dense, Mary,\u201d said Ainsley. \u201cIt\u2019s science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary continued to read and Ainsley continued to listen.<\/p>\n

Mary was sitting cross-legged, balanced on a stool. Ainsley was lying flat on the wood floor, limbs and hair spread all around. They were both smart girls, but were young enough and pliable enough that it was not yet clear who was smarter. They were the only two people they knew who read a significant amount of books, so they read a great deal together, but they also took long walks in the forests that surrounded their houses and, during the summers, frequently swam and sunned themselves at the community pool.<\/p>\n

They thought of themselves as many things, but mostly as humans who other people seemed to identify as young women, which appeared to come with a great many problems, most of which they knew, but some of which they were still in the process of discovering. They had a private joke between the two of them that they were not girls, but, rather, vegetation, plants whose souls were mistakenly rerouted toward the incorrect vessels, and that is why sex made very little sense to them, and why it required a great deal of discussion. In line with their vegetal alter egos, the girls sometimes called each other Red and White, in reference to their favorite fairy tale, because Mary had the dark, tight curls like Rose Red and Ainsley had the pale, blonde, water-straight hair like Snow White. Also, they lived in a part of the country where one had to walk through the woods a great a deal to get anywhere, which seemed to them how things were in the story, and they were, always, traversing the pine-needle paths to get to each other\u2019s houses, so it seemed like a good joke, but also something kind of nice to fantasize about, the two of them someday shape-shifting into flowers and ending up in the same bouquet.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can something be above and below at once?\u201d said Mary. \u201cIf it\u2019s inside something else,\u201d said Ainsley.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow can something be above and below at once?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68396],"tags":[71,1253],"class_list":["post-158205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whiting-awards-2022","tag-fiction","tag-whiting-awards"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRita Bullwinkel, Fiction by Rita Bullwinkel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"April 6, 2022 \u2013 \u201cHow can something be above and below at once?\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction by Rita Bullwinkel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 6, 2022 \u2013 \u201cHow can something be above and below at once?\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-06T11:20:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-07T19:45:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2481\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rita Bullwinkel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rita Bullwinkel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rita Bullwinkel\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b04bbd741e190960dbde742b8bdde239\"},\"headline\":\"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-06T11:20:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-07T19:45:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/\"},\"wordCount\":580,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-993x1024.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"fiction\",\"Whiting Awards\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Whiting Awards 2022\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/\",\"name\":\"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction by Rita Bullwinkel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-993x1024.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-06T11:20:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-07T19:45:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"April 6, 2022 \u2013 \u201cHow can something be above and below at once?\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2481,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"2022 Whiting Award winner\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b04bbd741e190960dbde742b8bdde239\",\"name\":\"Rita Bullwinkel\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86867513d8162aa12b4f68cc3424e64fbec308a85691ec8fca744dac0e349d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86867513d8162aa12b4f68cc3424e64fbec308a85691ec8fca744dac0e349d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rita Bullwinkel\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rbullwinkel\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction by Rita Bullwinkel","description":"April 6, 2022 \u2013 \u201cHow can something be above and below at once?\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction by Rita Bullwinkel","og_description":"April 6, 2022 \u2013 \u201cHow can something be above and below at once?\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2022-04-06T11:20:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-07T19:45:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2481,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rita Bullwinkel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rita Bullwinkel","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/"},"author":{"name":"Rita Bullwinkel","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b04bbd741e190960dbde742b8bdde239"},"headline":"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction","datePublished":"2022-04-06T11:20:50+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-07T19:45:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/"},"wordCount":580,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-993x1024.jpg","keywords":["fiction","Whiting Awards"],"articleSection":["Whiting Awards 2022"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/","name":"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction by Rita Bullwinkel","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-993x1024.jpg","datePublished":"2022-04-06T11:20:50+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-07T19:45:08+00:00","description":"April 6, 2022 \u2013 \u201cHow can something be above and below at once?\u201d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ritabullwinkel_credit_beowulfsheehan-scaled.jpg","width":2481,"height":2560,"caption":"2022 Whiting Award winner"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/06\/rita-bullwinkel-fiction\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rita Bullwinkel, Fiction"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b04bbd741e190960dbde742b8bdde239","name":"Rita Bullwinkel","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86867513d8162aa12b4f68cc3424e64fbec308a85691ec8fca744dac0e349d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/86867513d8162aa12b4f68cc3424e64fbec308a85691ec8fca744dac0e349d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rita Bullwinkel"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rbullwinkel\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158205"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158458,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158205\/revisions\/158458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}