How to Wrestle a Girl — Venita Blackburn

A daring and darkly humorous exploration of girlhood, queerness, and coming of age in Southern California.

Finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and longlisted for the 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, How to Wrestle a Girl is a bold collection of stories from a rising literary star. Venita Blackburn's characters navigate the complexities of growing up as Black girls in Southern California, their voices stark, sharp, and unflinchingly honest.

In the aftermath of her father's death, a teenage girl grapples with her burgeoning queerness and changing body while fending off the advances and failures of the adults around her. From biology class to church, wrestling matches to arm wrestling, Blackburn captures the raw vulnerability and fierceness of girlhood.

Shaking loose a vision of Black girlhood that is bruised yet resilient, hilarious and ominous, Blackburn masterfully crafts a collection that is at once hyper-local and universal. How to Wrestle a Girl shines in its propensity to magnify small moments, challenge presumptions, and dissect the wonder and danger of growing up in a world that often fails to protect Black girls.