Xochitl Gonzalez’s Novels Put the Spotlight on Latina and Black Creatives

When Xochitl Gonzalez was reading literature to research her third novel, she noticed something that didn’t quite feel right: there weren’t enough scenes featuring characters of color having a ball together. Even in tough times growing up, the writer recalls, her family always found reasons to celebrate. “My grandfather recycled bottles to pay for my communion party when I was 7,” says Gonzalez, 48. “So often, our stories are more about suffering than joy. But what I knew—and what shaped so much of my personality—was being at parties.” So for her third novel, the best-selling author of Olga Dies Dreaming and Anita de Monte Laughs Last wrote a book rich in colorful party scenes. Last Night in Brooklyn, a Great Gatsby retelling set in 2007, conjures a version of Brooklyn just before a new wave of gentrification made it unrecognizable. The novel, which was published last year, follows Alicia, a young woman trying to shrug off the weight of her mother’s traditional values. Alicia wants to let the city sway her toward new experiences and new people—particularly her neighbor La Garza, a local fashion designer and legendary party host. La Garza’s glamorous gatherings pull Alicia into a world full of young Latino and Black creatives working to make their mark on a rapidly changing world. Gonzalez, who was born to a Puerto Rican mother and Mexican American father, and raised in Brooklyn by her maternal grandparents, infuses her books with explorations of both identity and culture. Her love of New York City shines through her stories about characters discovering who they are and where they belong. And she likes imagining how her novels might literally fit into readers’ busy routines. She knows from her own experience as a reader hustling around the city that a book that’s easy to carry or a well-narrated audiobook can make a difference in how many people engage with her work. “I’m making art that’s meant to be consumed, so I try to keep in mind the lives that people are living,” she says. “Beautiful language means a lot to me—I also want to deliver a satisfying story that keeps people wanting to turn the page, because we’re in competition with people’s time. When I’m editing my own work, I’m like, ‘Is this book worth lugging around the city? Is it worth the schlep?’” In a past career, Gonzalez worked for about 13 years as a wedding planner. Orchestrating events for different kinds of clients across New York gave her insights into human nature and power. She decided to become a writer in her early 40s, funnelling her breadth of experience into stories filled with characters finding their way through the world and toward their dreams while contending with the intersections of privilege, race, and class, much like she has. Her next book, Need Blind: A Memoir of Class and Climbing in America—her first nonfiction book, coming in 2027—will examine this journey even more closely. “I was able to take all of that time observing people and how things work,” says Gonzalez, who was a Pulitzer finalist for her columns in The Atlantic. “Now, I can use it.”