Coming February 2026 from Cornerstone Press (University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point)
NEON STEEL
Speculative fiction set in Pittsburgh, PA in the 90s/early 2000s. Robots. Rap shows. Shojo & josei -styled romance. Blerds (Black Nerds). Anime. Comic cons. Vampires. Afro-futurism. Millennial nerdiness. You got it. ;)
Preview:
“The Girl in the Bomba Dress.” (Latin@ Literatures)., nominated for the Pushcart.
“Viper/Sweet.” The Hong Kong Review., nominated for the Pushcart.
“Writing Fiction.” hex literary.
“Smoke Break.” J Journal (Spring 2025), nominated for Best of the Net
”Neon Steel” (BIMBO Anthology Spring 2025).
(Cover design: Allison Lange and Cornerstone design team)
EARLY REVIEWS::
“This new book from Jennifer Maritza McCauley is so full of life and love. I don’t know if I’ve read anything quite like it before. It is pulsing with life, not one page of it stale or stagnant. And everyday since I’ve finished reading Neon Steel, I’ve thought of all the young people in the story that I fell in love with—Adri, Benedict, Jake Yee, Elana, Ferris, Lady. The book, by that I mean the work of McCauley, has brought the city of Pittsburgh in which I live to life in a way I hadn’t seen it before, in a way in which I will forever experience it going forward. Incredible, fun, heartbreaking and hopeful work from one of the best writers working today.” —Chiwan Choi, author of Sky Songs
Jennifer Maritza McCauley’s Neon Steel is a hybrid masterwork that’s equal parts autofiction, bildungsromane, flash narrative, Pittsburgalia, and interstitial, multi-modal paean to Black nerd culture. More akin to a season of Japanese anime (complete with linked episodes and standalone OVAs!) than it is a cookie-cutter coming of age tale, McCauley’s writing is vulnerable, relatable, heartfelt, and capable of moving from magical flights of high fantasy to the deepest pathos in a single paragraph. The result is a book that tells the story of a Pittsburgh that’s hardly ever mentioned, let alone celebrated, from the perspective of those who are often left out, if not forced from, the public eye. Ultimately, Neon Steel is the book our greater American culture needs and deserves right now, for it places our feelings of estrangement and outsiderism right where they belong: squarely at the forefront of the conversation. In two simple words, “Buy it!”
-Rone Shavers, author of Silverfish
In Neon Steel, Jennifer Maritza McCauley crafts a wondrous space to play and dream and catch you in her dreaming. Relayed in a series of multimedia “episodes,” these electric interconnected stories whip through different realities with genre-defying heat. You will find vampires and robot assassins. You will see a shonen battle break out during a routine hang at an arcade. You will see Batman (in Pittsburgh!). But the true wonder of this collection is the humanistic depth of its heart. McCauley’s characters are alive with love, love for each other and the city where they live. Just as when you find those friends who finally get you, I feel so lucky to have met them.
-Jen Julian, author of Red Rabbit Ghost
Jennifer Maritza McCauley's Neon Steel is a personal and insightful look at what it means to live and ultimately thrive in a space of "in-betweeness," as a both a Black and Puerto Rican person, a Black nerd (or "Blerd"), and as a person growing up in the days of AOL Messenger, on the verge of the future, but still tethered to the past.
McCauley's own Puerto Rican and African American background influences the page, with characters sharing the same racial and cultural in-between spaces. As so many Black kids have done, these characters discover themselves through mediums that celebrate in-betweenness, anime, tabletop games, and arcade life. In these worlds, a person can be both "normal" and powerful, human and superhuman, fitting in but extraordinary.
The characters in Neon Steel are looking toward their adulthood, but as one character who dances the bomba with a mysterious girl shows us, the traditions of the past still carry us forward, giving us a sense of place amidst the feeling of being in-between and reminding us that we matter and that expressing our history can also be a source of prideful "Blerd"-dom.
Neon Steel asks viewers to take a second look at "Blerd" life and ask is it just about being nerdy, or is it about self-discovery? Odds are you will find people similar to the characters in this work, people who want to own their true selves but are still finding the language for that task. Creating that language is a defiant act in a society that desperately wants Black people to be only one, digesitble thing. —-Monique L. Jones, The Big Book of Black Americans