Chulito: A Novel

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Set against a vibrant South Bronx neighborhood and the queer youth culture of Manhattan's piers, Chulito is a coming-of-age, coming out love story of a sexy, tough, hip hop-loving, young Latino man and the colorful characters who populate his block. Chulito, which means "cutie," is one of the boys, and everyone in his neighborhood has seen him grow up--the owner of the local bodega, the Lees from the Chinese restaurant, his buddies from the corner, and all of his neighbors and friends, including Carlos, who was Chulito's best friend until they hit puberty and people started calling Carlos a pato...a faggot.Chulito rejects Carlos, buries his feelings for him, and becomes best friends with Kamikaze, a local drug dealer. When Carlos comes home from his first year away from college and they share a secret kiss, Chulito's worlds collide as his ideas of being a young man, being macho, and being in love are challenged. Vivid, sexy, funny, heartbreaking, and fearless, this knock out novel is destine to become a gay classic.Review"A tremendous debut...full of heart and courage and a ferocious honesty."--Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao“Hilarious, unique, heartfelt and sharp. A wonderful read.”-Sandra Cisneros, author of the acclaimed The House on Mango Street and Caramelo“Chulito introduces a fresh, engaging, and stirring voice. Rice-Gonzalez’s memorable characters live on the page with a force and verve and vulnerability that touches our heart. This is a beautiful debut.”-Jaime Manrique, author of Latin Moon in Manhattan and Eminent Maricones.About the AuthorCharles Rice-González, born in Puerto Rico and reared in the Bronx, is a writer, long-time community and LGBT activist and Executive Director of BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. He received a BA in Communications from Adelphi University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. Rice-Gonzalez attended the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, VONA: Voices of Our Nation, the Lambda Literary Foundation Writers' Conference and Sandra Cisnero's Macondo Writers' Conference. He's worked with Sarah Schulman, Rebecca Brown, David Leavitt, Percival Everett, Helena Maria Viramontes, Elana Dykewomon and Stacey D'Erasmo. He was awarded a residency at the Byrdcliffe Artist Colony in Woodstock, NY and at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Charles received an Audre Lorde scholarship from the ZAMI Foundation and a P.R.I.D.E. (Puerto Rican Initiative to Develop Empowerment) Award. Rice-Gonzalez's plays include What Carlos Feels, Pink Jesus, and Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo* and I Just Love Andy Gibb which won Pregones Theater's 2005 ASUNCION Play Reading Series and received a workshop production in May 2007. He's read at the Bowery Poetry Club, The Living Room, the PANIC series at Nowhere Bar, the Gerber/Hart Library in Chicago, and several venues in the burgeoning South Bronx arts scene including Bruckner Bar and Grill, and was a featured writer at the Downtown Bronx Café. Rice-Gonzalez is a public relations and marketing specialist in the area if Latino arts and culture. He worked for nearly 20 years in the field at Universal Pictures in New York, for Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and Repertorio Español - Spanish Theatre Repertory before forming Rice-González Public Relations in 1997. He's worked with every major Latino theater company in New York and was the Latino Marketing specialist with the Broadway production of Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize winning Anna in the Tropics. He lives in the Bronx, NY.***