SOURCE: “Ana Castillo: The Protest Poet Goes Mainstream,” in Publishers Weekly, August 12, 1996, pp. 59–60.

In the following interview, Castillo discusses her formative years, inspirations for her writing, and her upcoming projects.

The road from the nearest el stop to Ana Castillo's North Side Chicago home curves for several blocks alongside the solemn, deserted expanse of historic Graceland Cemetery and then enters an offbeat shopping district that features a fortune-teller's storefront, a shuttered nightclub and a Mexican restaurant incongruously named Lolita's. Far from seeming out of place, these picturesque locations mesh perfectly with the bustling everyday Chicago life that surrounds them. Such harmonies between the romantic and the mundane, manifest in Castillo's neighborhood, also resonate in the adventurous chords of her art—as heard most recently in the story collection Loverboys (Forecasts, July 8), out this month from Norton.

Castillo lives halfway down a side-street full of lush lawns and profuse...