Xochitl Gonzalez

Gonzalez was born in New York City to a second-generation Puerto Rican mother and Mexican-American father and raised by her grandparents in the area between Bensonhurst and Borough Park. Her parents were union organizers and activists in the Socialist Workers Party, in which her mother ran for office. Gonzalez attended Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn and earned a scholarship to Brown University. Gonzalez was inspired to become a professional writer after the death of her grandmother in 2017, with the sale of her grandmother's home helping to fund her writing efforts. Gonzalez worked as an entrepreneur and consultant for a number of years before earning her MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2021. == Career ==

In 2022, Gonzalez published Olga Dies Dreaming, her debut novel. The novel was in part inspired by her past career as a wedding planner for the ultra-rich in New York City following the 2008 recession. Kirkus Reviews'' called the book "atmospheric, intelligent, and well informed: an impressive debut." Gonzalez wrote and co-executive produced, alongside filmmaker Alfonso Gómez-Rejón, a pilot for a drama based on the novel produced by Hulu and starring Aubrey Plaza and Ramón Rodríguez. Hulu decided not to pick up the series. In 2024, her follow-up novel Anita de Monte Laughs Last was published. NPR wrote that "Gonzalez's second novel brilliantly surpasses the promise of her popular debut Olga Dies Dreaming." The novel follows college student Raquel Toro as she discovers the art of Anita de Monte, a character based on the Cuban artist Ana Mendieta. Gonzalez claimed that she visited a location supposedly haunted by Mendieta and was visited by a spirit of the artist, who posthumously encouraged her story to be told. It inspired a study at the University of Connecticut that tracked the movements of Latine and white students on campus to measure their preference for noise. In June 2022, Gonzalez was elected a trustee of Brown University. Gonzalez was a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary finalist for her work writing the newsletter Brooklyn, Everywhere. In 2026 she published her third novel Last Night in Brooklyn. == Bibliography ==