The Yavapai College Boyd Tenney Library, the Literary Southwest and the YC Prescott Art Gallery are collaborating to share a unique visual art experience around the novel “Mexican Gothic” and author Silvia Moreno-Garcia during and after her visit in February.

Moreno-Garcia is the Literary Southwest’s first guest author of 2023 and her talk at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, will be in a YC Prescott campus library awash with artwork inspired by her critically acclaimed and multiple-award winning book.

All Arizona artists and all Arizona student artists are invited to be part of the library-turned temporary art gallery’s transformation by submitting 2D and 3D creations for “The Mexican Gothic Visual Art Exhibition.”

“Our collaboration with the Art Gallery aims to create an immersive experience for all who attend the author talk and visit the library in the weeks following,” said Ustadza White, Program Director for the Literary Southwest and Manager of Technical Services and Technology for the YC Library. “People speak about getting lost in a good book. We want all visitors to experience this feeling through the art exhibition,” White said.

“The Mexican Gothic Visual Art Exhibition” will share space with the library’s public resources from Feb. 24 through March 31. An opening reception at 5 p.m. Feb. 24 precedes Moreno-Garcia’s talk that same evening.

The deadline to submit artworks for the “Mexican Gothic” exhibition is Feb. 3. Submission guidelines are detailed on the Literary Southwest website: www.yc.edu/lsw. A committee of YC Library and Art Gallery staff will choose the pieces for the exhibition. Artists will be notified by Feb. 10.

White said “Mexican Gothic” is a book “that can capture the imagination of readers of all ages” as it “follows a fiercely independent young woman from 1950s Mexico battling society's expectations of her and the supernatural.”

Anyone who hasn’t yet read “Mexican Gothic” is encouraged to do so before the forthcoming Literary Southwest events. Copies in a variety of formats and in both English and Spanish are available at the YC Library, www.yc.edu/library. Interested artists are invited to visit this webpage for inspiration and to download supplemental materials, project ideas, a synopsis of the novel and pages from the book.