Elaine Castillo was born and raised in the Bay Area. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Comparative Literature. She is a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation Fellow, and her writing can be found or is forthcoming from Freeman’s, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, Taste Magazine, Bon Appetit, Electric Literature and elsewhere. Her most recent short film, A Mukbang, was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Open Space. Her debut novel is America is Not the Heart was published by Viking Books in the US/Canada and Atlantic Books (UK), and is forthcoming in translation in multiple countries. Her Instagram can be found at @_elainecastillo.