This series, sponsored by the College, brings emerging writers to campus to read with a University of Chicago student. The faculty chooses writers who have published one or two books. We have separate events for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. These events are particularly special for our Program because they provide opportunities for our students to showcase their work alongside emerging writers.
We administer a call for submissions from students in the College, who must submit 3–5 pages of their original work in an anonymous document. The visiting writer selects a winner and that student reads alongside them, and joins the faculty and writer for a celebratory dinner following the event. The New Voices Series fosters excitement and support among the students and provides a moment for our faculty to celebrate their students' work.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Raquel Gutiérrez is a critic, essayist, poet, performer, and educator. Gutiérrez's first book Brown Neon (Coffee House Press) was named as one of the best books of 2022 by The New Yorker and listed in The Best Art Books of 2022 by Hyperallergic. Brown Neon was a 2023 Finalist for the Lambda Literary Prize for Best Lesbian Biography/Memoir, a 2023 Finalist for the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses' Firework Award in Creative Nonfiction and a 2023 Recipient of The Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction. A 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism, as well as a 2017 recipient of the The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, Gutiérrez teaches in the Oregon State University-Cascades Low Residency Creative Writing MFA Program, as well as for The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing program. Gutiérrez gets to call Tucson, Arizona home.
Raquel Gutiérrez has selected Hilary Shi to read alongside her at New Voices in Nonfiction!
Hilary is a fourth-year majoring in Economics and minoring in English and Creative Writing. During her time in the College, she served as President of Promontory Investment Research, an equity research group that publishes quarterly investment recommendations on publicly traded companies. She also co-founded the UChicago chapter of Dear Asian Youth, a non-partisan organization that promotes political engagement among APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American) communities. Her hometown is Toronto, Canada. Back when she realized the Toronto Public Library doesn’t let you keep the books you borrow, she discovered the joys of writing her own stories, and has been re-discovering those joys ever since. Today, she most frequently writes non-fiction narrative essays and speculative fiction. In her free time, she enjoys exploring large bodies of water, rating restaurants, and, of course, telling stories.