MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE is the author, most recently, of Terry Dactyl (Coffee House Press 2025; UK edition Cipher Press), described by the New York Times Book Review as “a remarkably grounded look at what it means to be fully alive,” and by a starred review in Publishers Weekly as “a shimmering tale of art, drugs, and friendship spanning from the AIDS crisis to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Sycamore’s previous title, Touching the Art (Soft Skull 2023), was a Washington State Book Award Finalist in 2024 and a Pacific Northwest Book Award Finalist in 2025.

Sycamore’s title before that, The Freezer Door (Semiotext(e) 2020), was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, one of Oprah Magazine’s Best LGBTQ Books of 2020, and a Finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award.

Sycamore is the author of four novels and three nonfiction titles, and the editor of six nonfiction anthologies.

Sycamore’s most recent anthology, Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing up with the AIDS Crisis (Arsenal Pulp Press 2021), was named by BookRiot as one of the 100 Most Influential Queer Books of All Time.

Sycamore’s novel Sketchtasy (Arsenal Pulp Press 2018), was one of NPR’s Best Books of 2018. Her memoir The End of San Francisco (City Lights 2013) won a Lambda Literary Award. The End of San Francisco was also translated into Slovenian (SKUC Dvrustro 2025).

Sycamore’s anthology Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform (AK Press 2012) was an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book.

Mattilda's novels include So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (City Lights 2008) and Pulling Taffy (Suspect Thoughts 2003). She is the editor of four additional nonfiction anthologies, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (Seal 2007), That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (Soft Skull 2004; 2008), Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving (Haworth 2004; currently Routledge), and Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers Write about Their Clients (Haworth 2000; currently Routledge), which also appears in Italian (Effepi Libri 2007).

Mattilda has written for a variety of publications, including the New York Times Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, BOMB, Bookforum, Boston Review, The Baffler, n+1, Ploughshares, Fence, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Truthout, Foglifter, Utne Reader, AlterNet, Bitch, Bookslut, Denver Quarterly, The Stranger, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. For ten years Mattilda was the reviews editor and a columnist for the feminist magazine Make/shift.

Mattilda made a short 16mm film, All That Sheltering Emptiness, in collaboration with Joey Carducci. The film premiered in 2010 at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and has screened around the world.

Mattilda created Lostmissing, a public art project about the friend who will always be there, and what happens when you lose that
relationship.

Mattilda’s activism has included ACT UP in the early-‘90s, Fed Up Queers in the late-‘90s, Gay Shame, and numerous lesser-known (or even unnamed) groups.

Mattilda's papers are archived in the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center at the San Francisco Public Library, and are accessible to the public.

Mattilda’s next anthology, ACT UP Beyond New York: Stories and Strategies from a Movement to End the AIDS Crisis, will be published by Haymarket Press.

Mattilda lives in Seattle, Washington, and she loves feedback, so contact her, okay?

You can follow Mattilda on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.