The Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute (BMI) introduced their 2023 Spring Fellows on Thursday, January 19 at a reception held at The Doyle in Las Vegas. BMI brings writers and the literary imagination into the heart of public life through live experiences, fellowships,  innovative media, and literary activism.

Visiting fellows join a community of creative writers and scholars in a a thriving literary scene in Las Vegas and on the campus of UNLV. Current fellows include Fakhria Rasikh, Melissa Febos, Nabila Lovelace, Jaquira Diaz, Anna Qu, Ahmed Naji, and Amanda Fortini.

Coming up next for BMI is the Breakout Writers Series with Raquel Gutiérrez on January 25 at the Barrick Museum of Art. The program will be introduced by Tanya Shirazi, writer and PhD candidate from UNLV’s Creative Writing International Program.

Raquel Gutiérrez is an arts critic/writer, poet and educator. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gutiérrez credits the queer and feminist DIY post-punk ‘zine culture of the 1990s plus Los Angeles County and Getty paid arts internships with introducing her/them to the various vibrant art & music scenes and communities throughout Southern California. Gutiérrez is 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. Her/Their writing has recently appeared in Art In America, NPR Music, Places Journal, and High Country News. Gutiérrez teaches in the 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. It is out now from Coffee House Press.

More info: Black Mountain Institute, The Writer’s Block