Elizabeth M. Castillo

Elizabeth M Castillo is a two-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net-nominated poet and writer. She is also a language teacher, as well as a pilot's wife, small-business owner, and homeschooling mother. She writes about both the mundane and the magical that make up everyday life. ​ Raised on a steady diet of poetry, words and stories. Her childhood was split between the Congo (Zaire/DRC) and England, and she spent her adolescent years on the tiny, tropical island of Mauritius. ​ She studied Latin American History & Politics, & Modern Languages in the UK, and spent a year teaching and doing research in Santiago, Chile. She then moved to France, where she married and started a family, and a handful of language and arts-based businesses. ​ EMC teaches languages here in Paris, and has a number of pen-names under which she writes all sorts of things, from poetry to picture books; with period retellings and romance in between. ​ EMC's writing explores the themes of race & ethnicity, motherhood, womanhood, marriage, love, loss, grief and language. She also lives with anxiety, depression, and recently diagnosed ADHD, so there's probably quite a bit of that in there too, as well a a touch of self-deprecation and humour. As well as writing, EMC also runs her interview series EMC's Writer of the Month, as well as EMC 6 Things/6 Cosas, and EMC's Question words, all to promote indie-press creators and their work. Her bilingual, illustrated, debut collection "Cajoncito: Poems on Love, Loss, y Otras Locuras" was published in October 2021. Her debut chapbook, "Not Quite An Ocean," is out with Nine Pens Press early 2023. ​