Elaine Castillo is author of the widely acclaimed debut novel, America is Not the Heart ( Viking, 2018), named one of the best books of the year by NPR, The Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews, the New York Public Library, and many others. In August 2022, Viking will publish her first work of nonfiction, How to Read Now, on the politics and ethics of our reading culture. Her writing has appeared in Freeman’s, The Rumpus, Lit Hub, Taste Magazine, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. Her short film, A Mukkbang, was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Open Space. She is a VONA Foundation Fellow, and was a three-time recipient of the Roselyn Schneider Eisner Prize for prose while at UC Berkeley. She has also been nominated for the Pat Kavanagh Award, a Pushcart Prize, and a Gatewood Prize.

When asked about the ways in which the personal is political in America Is Not The Heart, she responded, “When it comes to political art as genre and aesthetic, I’m always conscious of the narrow, gendered assumption that “serious” political content is about war, empire, and history. There is no lack of war or colonial history in the book. But it’s equally important to me that a young, queer, Bay Area Pinay’s relationship to makeup artistry, or a former NPA insurgent’s feelings about romance manga, could also bear significant political resonance—which is to say, could also be as alive to our civic selves as to our private souls.”

Born, raised, and currently living in the Bay Area, she attended UC Berkeley. In 2009, Castillo moved to London and later received a MA in Creative & Life Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London.