raquel gutiérrez
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Raquel Gutiérrez is a critic, essayist, poet, performer, and educator. Gutiérrez's first book Brown Neon (Coffee House Press) was named as one of the best books of 2022 by The New Yorker and listed in The Best Art Books of 2022 by Hyperallergic. Brown Neon was a 2023 Finalist for the Lambda Literary Prize for Best Lesbian Biography/Memoir, a 2023 Finalist for the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses' Firework Award in Creative Nonfiction and Recipient of The Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction. A 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism, as well as a 2017 recipient of the The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, Gutiérrez was recently the inaugural Writer-In-Residence in the Art department at Whittier College in Southern California (Spring 2024) and is currently a Fall 2024 Artist in Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts. Gutiérrez’s poetry collection, Southwest Reconstruction (working title) will be out Fall 2025 on Noemi Press. They teach in the Institute of American Indian Arts's (IAIA) Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing program. Gutiérrez gets to call Tucson, Arizona home.
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photo credit: L.F. Guizar