Winner of the 2023 Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
Finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Memoir/Biography
A New Yorker Best Book of 2022
An Oprah Daily Must-Read Book by Latinx Authors
A Latino Stories Best New Latinx Author of 2022
A Hyperallergic Best Art Book of 2022
A Ms. Magazine Favorite Book of 2022
A TODAY Most Anticipated Latino Book of 2022
A Millions Most Anticipated Book of Spring 2022
An Electric Literature Most Anticipated LGBTQ Book of 2022
A Bustle Most Anticipated Books of 2022
“In these essays. . . 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 New Yorker
“Singular and inimitable.”
—Emma Specter, Vogue
“Ambitious in scope and narrative structure, perhaps most impressive is the way in which [Gutiérrez] conquers such disparate terrain . . . to reveal how much connection we all share.”
—Rachel León, Los Angeles Review of Books
“Whether it is creating a cartography of queerness through family lineage and propinquity or digging through the layers of sorrow, love, and trauma to uncover the true borders and frontiers of our identity, each essay offers a unique consciousness at work.”
—Ernesto Mestre-Reed, Oprah Daily
“Gutiérrez shines bright light on the brutal injustice of borders, and elucidates the uncanny violence inherent to desert land art. . . . Dazzling.”
—Sadie Dupuis, SPIN
“Gutiérrez skillfully maps the realities, struggles, and joys of queer, Latinx, artistic life in the Southwest U.S. while also calling all readers to deconstruct the borders and boundaries that plague their own communities.”
—Stef Rubino, Autostraddle
“A tribute to the power of art to provoke and challenge its viewers.”
—Rebecca Hussey, Foreword Reviews
“[Gutiérrez’s] prose is fresh, it feels personal. . . . Their multifaceted mindscape comes through on every page.”
—Hrag Vartanian, Hyperallergic
“Thoughtfully tackles questions of gender, sexuality, and performance.”
—K.W. Colyard, Bustle
“With beauty, and unmistakable care for person and place, Raquel Gutiérrez maps life’s butchest, sweetest, and saddest mysteries.”
—Myriam Gurba
“Brown Neon emerges as an instant foundational text, and Raquel Gutiérrez as a leading critic, witness, and visionary not only of the queer, brown Southwest, but our current American nightmare.”
—Fernando A. Flores
“In narratives that describe the intergenerational landscape of queer cultural memory and self-ecologies of Latinx innovation within the current U.S. political economy, Gutiérrez dazzles.”
—Roberto Tejada
