The Desert Nights, Rising Stars
Writers Conference

Raquel Gutierrez is an arts critic/writer, poet and educator. Born and raised in Los Angeles Gutierrez credits the DIY queer and feminist post-punk 'zine culture of the 1990s plus County and Getty paid arts internships with introducing her/them to the various vibrant art & music scenes and communities throughout Southern California. Gutierrez is a 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism, as well as a 2017 recipient of the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Her/Their writing has recently appeared in or is forthcoming in Art In America, NPR Music, Places Journal, and The Georgia Review. Gutierrez is Visiting Faculty in the English department at the University of California, Riverside and is Program Faculty for Oregon State University-Cascades Low Residency Creative Writing MFA Program. Her/Their first book of prose, Brown Neon, is an ekphrastic memoir that considers what it means to be a Latinx artist during the Trump era and will be published by Coffee House Press, June, 2022. Gutierrez currently resides in Tucson, Arizona.