The U of A Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is proud to welcome novelist Rita Bullwinkel as its 2025-26 Walton Visiting Writer in Fiction.

Bullwinkel will give a free public reading of her work at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at Pearl's Books in Fayetteville. A Q&A and book-signing will follow.

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.  An assistant professor of creative writing at the University of San Francisco, Bullwinkel lives and works in San Francisco. 

Each year, the Walton Visiting Writers series in the Program in Creative Writing and Translation brings esteemed authors in poetry, fiction and literary translation to the U of A to give free public readings and to work with graduate students in the creative writing M.F.A. program.

Past Walton Writers include Natalie Diaz, Chris Abani, Caryl Phillips, Franz Wright, Esther Allen and Karen Tei Yamashita.

This event is made possible by the Program in Creative Writing and Translation, the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English and the Walton Family Foundation.