About
Emily Schultz
Emily Schultz is the co-founder of Joyland Magazine. Her newest novel, Little Threats, was published by GP Putnam's Sons and was named an Apple Books Best of November 2020 pick. Her novel, The Blondes, released in the U.S. with St. Martin’s Press and Picador, in France with Editions Asphalte, and in Canada with Doubleday. It was named a Best Book of 2015 by NPR and Kirkus. The Blondes was produced as a scripted podcast starring Madeline Zima (Twin Peaks), Helen Hong (Inside Llewyn Davis), and Rob Belushi (How I Met Your Mother). It was created by Schultz and Brian J Davis.
Her writing has appeared in Elle, Slate, Evergreen Review, Vice, Today's Parent, Hazlitt, The Hopkins Review, and Prairie Schooner. She lives in Brooklyn where she is a producer with the indie media company Heroic Collective.
Literary agent: Ryan D Harbage
Film and digital projects: Heroic Collective
High res photo download
PRAISE FOR LITTLE THREATS
“Fans of Tana French, Kimberly Belle, and Orange is the New Black will fall under this book's spell. . . Terse and tense, Little Threats investigates righteous anger, teenage angst, and the enormity of setting the record straight.” BOOKLIST
"A taut psychological thriller...Schultz knows how to keep the reader engrossed." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Brilliantly structured and gorgeously written, Little Threats is a captivating mystery about a young woman accused of a brutal murder--one she isn't sure she's committed. It's a story of love and loss, the power of guilt and the savagely delicate fabric of family," —Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia and A Good Marriage
"Emily Schultz unfolds her story with masterful precision and restraint, delivering a novel that is pure emotional dynamite.” – Wendy Walker, bestselling author of The Night Before
"A pulsating mystery, where small details enlighten and illuminate." — Lori Lansens, author of The Girls, and This Little Light
“Emily Schultz’s Little Threats is a complex, powerful, emotionally wrenching thriller with a deceptively simple premise: what if you agreed to serve 15 years in prison for a murder you have no memory of committing? Intense, twisty, and compelling—once you begin reading, you won’t be able to stop!”
– Karen Dionne, author of the #1 internationally bestselling The Marsh King's Daughter
“At its heart, Little Threats is a devastating and elegiac novel about teenage friendships, sexuality, drug use, and ultimately betrayal. Emily Schultz is unflinching in revealing the way prison isn't merely a place, but a feeling that can haunt a girl who grew into a woman behind bars. Freedom isn't absolution, and the answers are as painful as the questions in this heart-stopping, powerful story.”
– Bryn Greenwood, the author of The Reckless Oath We Made and All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
“Little Threats hooked me from the first line. A gripping, haunting story about family, memory, and most of all, grief—this book is difficult to put down, and more difficult to stop thinking about.”
– Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse
"Emily Schultz's Little Threats is an exquisitely written and thrilling novel about growing up and breaking apart, about the past refusing to loosen its grip on us, and about the impossibility of going back and righting the wrongs that send us spiraling out of control. And, of course, it's a whale of a whodunnit. This is a riveting and powerful novel about friendship and fate, youth and time, and the toll these things take on all of us. Don't miss it!"
--David Bell, USA Today bestselling author of The Request
PRAISE FOR THE BLONDES
“The Blondes is scary and deeply, bitingly funny — a satire about gender that kept me reading until 4 in the morning — and a fine addition to the all-too-small genre of feminist horror.” NPR (Also a Great Reads 2015 selection)
“The Blondes is intelligent, mesmerizing, and fearless. An entirely original and beautifully twisted satire with a heart of darkness.” Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven
“A nail-biter that is equal parts suspense, science fiction, and a funny, dark sendup of the stranglehold of gender.” Kirkus Reviews , Best Books of 2015
“Funny, horrific, and frighteningly realistic, Schultz’s second novel is a must read.” The Library Journal (starred)
“[A] ferociously clever, exceedingly well written variation on the pandemic novel…This canny, suspenseful, acidly observant satire cradles an intimate, poignant, and hilarious story of one lonely, stoic, young mother-to-be caught up in surreal and terrifying situations.” Booklist (starred)
“This frighteningly realistic nail-biter is as acidly funny as it is twisted.” People Magazine
“Schultz spins an eerie tale with perspective into our cultural attitudes about beauty.” Entertainment Weekly
“Skin-crawling, Cronenbergian satire.” Rue Morgue
"Corrosively humorous commentary on social, sexual and cross-border politics." —Toronto Star
“Emily Schultz balances biting humor and thrilling suspense in a complex story.” Us Weekly
"The Blondes [aims] to be both a realist narrative about loneliness, insecurities and maternal anxieties and a fantastical, not quite allegorical tale of a semi-apocalypse. It’s a testament to author Emily Schultz’s immense gifts with tone, detail and the crafting of a compelling first-person voice that this novel is never less than engaging even when this balance begins to feel absurd." National Post
“A wild and smart look at cultural theory, gender roles, and societal expectations.” LongReads
“A campy, King-inspired nightmare sure to satisfy the scream queens in the audience…” Bustle
“The Blondes by Emily Schultz gives a twisted meaning to the phrase ‘blondes have more fun.’ I giggled and shivered.” Minnesota Journal Sentinel
“With a lively sense of danger … and an absurdist but compelling feminist premise, the book has the enviable qualities of a smart page-turner.“ Flavorwire
"A hybrid novel, at the crossroads of the history of zombies, a nightmare scenario and the story of an adulterous liaison gone wrong, Blondes is bathed in light humor and self mockery." Christian Desmeules, Le Devoir