Anna Castillo 

                          by: Cameron Robbins

According to critic Ilan Stavans, “She is the most daring and experimental of Latino novelists” (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/). Ana Castillo is a Chicano writer who writes about her background and her emotions. Castillo is bilingual and mixes both Spanish and English into her writing. Mixing languages and reality with fiction is what makes Castillo so unique. Critic Marisa Cantu says "Castillo's artistry lies in her ability to discover the meaning in the random experiences that fill our lives and communicate directly to us in sensuous, heartfelt bursts of revelation." (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/) She writes about simple events and tells about her background in her writing. Castillo is a feminist writer. A lot of her ideas express feminism and express herself through her poetry and writing. Who writes short stories, essays, poetry, and novels, as well as being a writer she is a dedicated teacher and a mother.

          Castillo was born on June 15, 1953, In Chicago, the place she was then raised in.. She graduated high school from Jones’ Commercial High School and then went to Chicago City College for two years. After going to Chicago City College, Castillo went to Northwestern Illinois University. After graduating in 1975 she got her B.A. in Art and minoring in Secondary Education. After graduating from college, Castillo began publishing some of her work. Castillo then moved to California where she became an ethnic studies teacher. Between 1977 and 1979, Castillo was a writer in residence for the Illinois Arts Council. As well as being a big activist in the 70s, Castillo taught English, and Mexican-American in Chicago and in San Francisco. Then she returned back to California and then taught at several places. In 1983 Castillo had a baby boy named Marcel Ramón Herrera. Today, Castillo is hardworking, a mother and still has time to write.

Even while teaching, traveling, and taking care of her son, Castillo still has time to write. Many of her pieces of work have won many awards. Some of the awards include the Before Columbia Foundation’s American Book Award for The Mixaquiahuala Letters from 1987. She also got the Carl Sandburg Literary Award in Fiction for So Far From God in 1993. Castillo was honored by the Women’s Foundation in San Francisco in 1988. After many years of writing and years of winning awards, Castillo is still writing her award winning essays, books, short stories, and poetry.