'This novel's tawdry setting provides the crucible for a work of real beauty ... [Rory's] childhood resembles a gritty screenplay of fierce love, hopelessness and fear, with a narrative resigned and ecstatic by turns as Hassman's luminous prose also refuses to conform' Guardian. 'This first novel is not like anything you or I have ever read ... You can't help loving this' Jaimy Gordon, author of Lord of Misrule. 'Hassman's wildly inventive prose explodes off the page' Heather O'Neill, author of Lullabies for Little Criminals. 'This amazing debut spills over with love but is still absolutely unflinching and real ... She's really that kind of fresh new voice people talk about' Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.

Tupelo Hassman graduated from Columbia's MFA programme. Her writing has been published in The Portland Review Literary Journal, Paper Street Press, Tantalum, We Still Like and ZYZZYVA, among others. Girlchild is her first novel. She lives in Oakland, California.