Sebastian Castillo

Sebastian Castillo is a writer and teacher born in Caracas, Venezuela and currently based in Philadelphia, PA.^[1][2] His 2025 novel Fresh, Green Life was the 2025 Los Angeles Review of Books Summer Book Club Pick.^[3][4][5]

Sebastian Castillo
Born	Caracas, Venezuela
Citizenship	Venezuela, United States
Education	Temple University (MFA), Manhattan College (BA)
Occupations	poet novelist
Employer(s)	Temple University, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania
Website	https://sebastian-castillo.com/

Early life and education

Castillo was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and later relocated to the United States. He grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, and later moved to Philadelphia.^[6]

He completed his higher education in the Philadelphia, studying literature and creative writing. He later joined the faculty at Temple University, where he teaches creative writing and literature.

Career

Sebastian Castillo has written for publications such as Electric Literature,^[7] JOYLAND,^[8] the New York Tyrant,^[9] and The New York Times.^[10] He has been shortlisted for BOMB's Fiction Contest.^[11] Castillo's work has been described as autofictional and surrealist.^[12][13][14]

In The Oxonian Review, Marie Ungar describes Fresh, Green Life as a "parody of and love letter to academic life" grappling with the "worth of writing and thinking" given economic alienation and existential absurdity.^[15]

In 2025, hi first book, 49 Venezuelan Novels, was translated into Spanish by the Mexican writer Elisa Díaz Castelo, for La barba metafísica.^[16]

Works

• Fresh, Green Life. Soft Skull, 2025.
• The Zoo of Thinking. Smooth Friend, 2024.
• SALMON. Shabby Doll House, 2023.
• Not I. Word West, 2020.
• 49 Venezuelan Novels. Bottlecap Press, 2017.