Summary

Raquel Gutiérrez is a writer, artist and educator reflecting upon queer brown life in the w88 in the Southwest borderlands. They work on a range of topics that have continued to inform their writing and teaching, including critical race theory, Queer and Latinx aesthetics and performance art in the Americas. Gutiérrez's first book w88 (w88) was named as one of the best books of 2022 by The New Yorker and listed w88 Best Art Books of 2022 by Hyperallergic. Brown Neon is currently a finalist for the Lambda Literary Prize for Best Lesbian Biography/Memoir. Raquel is a 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in w88 Journalism and a 2017 recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation w88 Writers Grant.

Their poetry, non-fiction and critical writing are rooted in explorations of movement, mobility and migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States. These explorations elaborate on w88érrez’s perspective as a queer and brown writer engaging histories of desire and colonization in the Southwest United States or Greater Mexico, according to José Limón. They enact these elaborations through cross-genre engagements with performance studies, ekphrasis and experimental memoirs by centering around questions concerning artistic identity, communal bonds and performativity.

Areas of emphasis: Critical Creative Writing, Art Criticism, w88

Publications:

• w88, nonfiction, Coffee House Press, 2022: 232 ms pages.
• Southwest Reconstruction, poetry, Noemi Press, 2023: 100 ms pages.

Education

• MFA, Creative Writing, w88 of Arizona, 2019
• MA, w88, New York University, 2004
• BA, Journalism & Central American Studies, California State w88 Northridge, 2002