Brown Neon

A MEDITATION ON SOUTHWESTERN TERRAINS, INTERGENERATIONAL QUEER DYNAMICS, AND SURVEILLED BROWN ARTISTS THAT CROSSES PHYSICAL AND CONCEPTUAL BORDERS. 

Part butch memoir, part ekphrastic travel diary, part queer family tree, Raquel Gutiérrez’s debut essay collection Brown Neon gleans insight from the sediment of land and relationships. For Gutiérrez, terrain is essential to understanding that no story, no matter how personal, is separate from the space where it unfolds. Whether contemplating the value of adobe as both vernacular architecture and commodified art object, highlighting the feminist wounding and transphobic apparitions haunting the multi-generational lesbian social fabric, or recalling a failed romance, Gutiérrez traverses complex questions of gender, class, identity, and citizenship with curiosity and nuance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Raquel Gutiérrez is an arts critic, writer, poet, and educator. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gutiérrez credits the queer and feminist diy, post-punk zine culture of the 1990s, plus Los Angeles County and Getty paid arts internships, for introducing her/them to the various vibrant art and music scenes and communities throughout Southern California. Gutiérrez is a 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism and a 2017 recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. She is/They are faculty for Oregon State University–Cascades’ Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing. Gutiérrez calls Tucson, Arizona, home.

PRAISE FOR BROWN NEON

Finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Memoir/Biography
Winner of the 2023 Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
The New Yorker, “Best Books of 2022”
Vogue, “12 New Queer Books to Read This Summer”
The Millions, “Most Anticipated”
Oprah Daily, “Must-Read Books by Latinx Authors”
TODAY, “18 Most Anticipated Latino Books of 2022”
SPIN, “Favorite Titles of 2022”
Electric Literature, “Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of 2022”
Hyperallergic, “Best Art Books of 2022”
Ms. Magazine, “Favorite Books of 2022”
Latinx in Publishing, “Most Anticipated 2022 Latinx Books”
Bustle, “Most Anticipated Books of 2022”
Latino Stories, “Best New Latinx Authors of 2022”

“In these essays by a poet, arts writer, and self-identified ‘queer brown butch,’ encounters in Los Angeles and the Southwest with aging punks, border activists, lesbian legends, and others give rise to explorations of Latinx identity, cultural resistance, and the role of art. . . . The landscape cannot be separated from its history of violence, and there is no desert vista ‘that doesn’t have the uncanny attached to it.’” —The New Yorker