Xochitl Gonzalez | |
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| Born | 1977 (age 47–48) Brooklyn, New York |
| Education | |
| Notable works | Olga Dies Dreaming |
Xochitl Gonzalez (/ˈsoʊtʃiːl/,SO-cheel;[1][2] born 1977) is an American writer. In 2022, she published her debut novelOlga Dies Dreaming which became aNew York Times Best Seller on January 30, 2022.[3]
In 2021, she began writing the newsletter "Brooklyn, Everywhere" forThe Atlantic.[4] In 2023, she joinedThe Atlantic as a staff writer and was a finalist for thePulitzer Prize for Commentary for her work there.[5]
Gonzalez was born inNew York City to asecond-generation Puerto Rican mother and Mexican-American father and raised by her grandparents[6] in the area betweenBensonhurst andBorough Park.[7] Her parents were activists in the Socialist Workers Party, where her mother was a union organizer who ran for office in theSocialist Workers Party.[8]
Gonzalez attendedEdward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn and earned a scholarship toBrown University.[9] At Brown she intended to study creative writing but ultimately majored inart history.[10] Reflecting on her time at the university, Gonzalez wrote, "Brown was only four hours by car, a lifetime by way of cultural journey. I had dreamt for years of escaping the concrete of Brooklyn for reasons I couldn't really ever put my finger on."[8] Gonzalez graduated from Brown with a Bachelor of Arts in 1999.
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.[11]
Gonzalez worked as an entrepreneur and consultant for a number of years before earning her MFA from theUniversity of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2021.[12] In June 2022, Gonzalez was elected a trustee of Brown University.[13]
Gonzalez was named a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary for her work writing the newsletterBrooklyn, Everywhere.[11]
In 2022, Gonzalez publishedOlga 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.[10] The book was received positively in reviews byRon Charles forThe Washington Post and Shannon Melero forJezebel.[14][15]Kirkus Reviews called the book "atmospheric, intelligent, and well informed: an impressive debut."[16] Gonzalez is currently writing and co-executive producing[17] alongside filmmakerAlfonso Gómez-Rejón, a pilot for a drama based on the novel produced byHulu and starringAubrey Plaza andRamon Rodriguez.[18][19]
In 2024, her follow-up novelAnita de Monte Laughs Last was published. The novel largely received positive reviews,[20] withNPR writing that "Gonzalez's second novel brilliantly surpasses the promise of her popular debutOlga Dies Dreaming".[21] The novel follows college student Raquel Toro as she discovers the art of Anita de Monte, a character based on the Cuban artistAna Mendieta.[22] 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.[11]
Her 2022 seminal and viral essay"Why Do Rich People Love Quiet?" on Gentrification of Noise explores the relationship between class and noise and the desire of the wealthy to impose their norms on others.[23] It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and 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.[24] In 2025, Gonzalez coined the phrase "Comfort Class," a term to describe "people who were born into lives of financial stability" whose "disconnect from the lives of the majority has expanded to such a chasm that their perspective—and authority—may no longer be relevant."[25]
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