Emily Witt

Witt noted that many coming-of-age novels rarely addressed the issue of sexuality from a feminine perspective. In Slate magazine in 2013, she noted that, in many classic novels, the subject of female sexuality was missing or subdued, in addition to having female characters being defined simply in opposition to dynamic male characters; when she turned to books written by men, she was turned off.

In 2024 her book Health and Safety: A Breakdown won the Los Angeles Times-Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose.

The book chronicles the " psychedelics and Brooklyn’s underground party scene during the first Trump presidency." The judges said: “Emily Witt exposes a country in the throes of ongoing trauma in a coming-of-age memoir — keenly observed, unapologetically told — that feels scarily emblematic of our life and times.”