Gutiérrez Bio for SFSNNJ
Peter Gutiérrez has been a professional writer for close to twenty years. He is probably best known for his
work in comics in the 1990's when he wrote the best-selling indie title SHI: THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR,
eventually spending several years under contract developing a film version that was never produced. The
other comics characters he was fortunate enough to write include Grifter, Daredevil, and Witchblade. As an
editor, he developed the historically-minded SHI: SENRYAKU mini-series, which featured art by Jeff Smith,
Joe Quesada, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Lee among others. In 1997, he was nominated for a Will Eisner
Comic Industry Award for creating and writing SHI: KAIDAN, a collection of original Japanese ghost stories
on which he collaborated with Michael Kaluta, David Mack, and Stan Sakai.
These days Peter is still involved in the world of comics and graphic novels, focusing on their value to both
literature and literacy. Recent speaking engagements include the ’08 and ’09 New York Comic Cons,
SPLAT! (the graphic novel symposium), the New York City School Library Fall Conference, and Fordham
University’s “Graphica in Education” conference in late January. On May 8 he will speak at a day-long
celebration of comics and graphic novels at the combined Massachusetts Library Association and
Massachusetts School Library Annual Conference. Much of his work in this area is done as an advisor to
Diamond Book Distributors, to whose magazine BOOKSHELF he is a frequent contributor. He is also the
graphic novel columnist for FOREWORD Magazine, and has written on the topic for GRAPHIC NOVEL
REPORTER, SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, and COMIPRESS.
Peter also uses comics in his teaching in the Montclair school system, where this past fall he taught “Super-
Powered Comics Reading” and last winter he taught a media literacy course entitled "What Makes a
Superhero Super?" He has been teaching film appreciation and media literacy since 1990, most recently
last spring, with a course called "Fantasy Films, from Oz to Harry Potter." Peter has written on film for RUE
MORGUE, SCREEN EDUCATION, and UGO NETWORKS in addition to small market horror publications
such as SHROUD and WITHERSIN. His essay on Phil Mucci’s “silent horror flick” THE LISTENING DEAD
will soon appear in the companion book to that film.
For the library market Peter has authored nonfiction books on such topics as European literature and Asian
culture, and has also written nonfiction and fiction for print and media publishers such as The Financial
Times, Sesame Workshop, Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, and National Geographic. Peter is currently under
contract to Scholastic for a book on scriptwriting in movies, comics, video games, and other media due out
in the fall of 2010, the fifth book he has written for the publisher. His specialty is the use of high-interest
media in the classroom and to this end has blogged on media and fandom for MIT's Project New Media
Literacies. As a member of the Commission on Media of the National Council of Teachers of English
(NCTE), the largest educator organization in the U. S., Peter helps organize its annual Media Gallery and is
a consultant to its film festival.
Very occasionally Peter still produces fiction; last summer two short stories of his were anthologized in
DARK TERRITORIES, from GSHW, and in the third volume of READ BY DAWN, the international series
affiliated with Edinburgh's Dawn by Dawn film festival. Other markets to which he has sold short genre fiction
include APEX SCIENCE FICTION AND HORROR DIGEST, TQR STORIES, UNICORN 8 and RENDING
THE VEIL. In 2006, the editors of the online literary magazine AntiMuse selected his horror poem, "his face,
a rebuttal" for "Best in Show" honors.
By day a consultant to print and media publishers such as Toon Books, Peter contributes to Firefox News in
his spare time, interviewing filmmakers and writing on noir, horror and dark fantasy across media. However,
the project in 2009 he is probably most excited about is writing the liner notes to a new zombie DVD from
Wild Eye Releasing.
www.myspace.com/peter_gutierrez
www.linkedin.com/in/petergutierrez