Brown Neon

Part butch memoir, part ekphrastic travel diary, part queer family tree, Raquel Gutiâerrez's debut essay collection Brown Neon gleans insight from the sediment of land and relationships. For Gutierrez, 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 areas of transphobia among lesbians and feminists, or recalling how one of their own romances unraveled, Gutiâerrez traverses complex questions of gender, class, identity, and citizenship with curiosity and nuance--