Vendela Vida Books in Order

Vida explores American girls' transitions toward adulthood through sorority recruitment, debutante balls, gang initiations, quinceañeras, witchcraft, and weddings. Reporting and participation reveal how young women seek identity, acceptance, and belonging through formal and improvised rituals.

Graduate student Ellis talks her way out of a terrifying encounter with an armed stranger, but its aftermath unsettles her relationships. Seeking distance, she visits family and joins her mother on a medical mission to the Philippines.

Edited by Vendela Vida, this volume collects writer-to-writer conversations first published in The Believer, supplemented by previously unpublished interviews. The exchanges move beyond craft to subjects such as politics, philosophy, work, and the personal habits that shape a writing life.

After her father's death, Clarissa learns he was not her biological parent and that her fiancé concealed the truth. She leaves New York for Lapland, searching for her origins amid an increasingly complicated family history.

Widowed Yvonne returns to the Turkish coast where she once honeymooned, hoping to reconnect with happier memories. A rented house, troubled strangers, and a friendship with a young boy expose tensions she cannot leave behind.

This collection gathers thirty-five interviews with musicians from The Believer magazine. Conversations explore songwriting, performance, touring, improvisation, and interests beyond music, offering varied perspectives on artistic work and the lives of its practitioners.

Collected from The Believer, these film interviews bring actors, directors, and other artists into candid conversation about their work. More than thirty discussions explore independent filmmaking, Hollywood conventions, creative influences, and connections across the arts.

Robbed of her money and passport in Casablanca, a traveler finds unexpected freedom in losing her identity. Work as a film star's stand-in draws her into impersonation and an increasingly unstable relationship with her former self.

Teenage friends Eulabee and Maria Fabiola disagree about a disturbing incident in their San Francisco neighborhood. Their friendship fractures, and Maria Fabiola's sudden disappearance unsettles the community while exposing hidden tensions beneath its privileged surface.