Elaine Castillo, MODERATION

Elaine Castillo, bookseller favorite author of America Is Not the Heart and How to Read Now: Essays, visits the store for the paperback release of her latest novel, Moderation, a bold and inventive novel about real romance in the virtual workplace—​bringing Castillo’s trademark wit and sharp cultural criticism to an irresistible story about the possible future of love.

Longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize in Fiction and named a Top Ten Book of 2025 by The Atlantic and Slate, and a Best Book of 2025 by The New Yorker, TIME, Kirkus Reviews and more.

Girlie Delmundo is the greatest content moderator in the world, and despite the setbacks of financial crises, climate catastrophe, and a global pandemic, she’s going places: She’s getting a promotion. Now thanks to her parent company Paragon’s purchase of Fairground—the world’s preeminent virtual reality content provider—she’s on the way to becoming an elite VR moderator, playing in the big leagues and, if her enthusiastic bosses are to be believed, moderating the next stage of human interaction.

Despite the isolation that virtual reality requires from colleagues, friends, and family, the unbelievable perks of her new job mean she can solve a lot of her family's problems with money and mobility. She doesn’t have to think about the childhood home they lost back in the Bay Area, or history at all—she can just pay any debts that come due. But when she meets William Cheung, Playground’s wry, reticent co-founder (now chief product officer), slowly unearths some of his secrets, and finds herself somehow falling in love, she’ll learn that history might be impossible to moderate and the future utterly impossible to control.

Elaine Castillo named one of “30 of the Planet’s Most Exciting Young People” by the Financial Times, was born and raised in the Bay Area. Her most recent novel Moderation has been longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize in Fiction, and was named one of the Top Ten Books of 2025 by The Atlantic, Slate, and a Best Book of 2025 by The New Yorker, TIME, Kirkus Reviews, and more. Her debut novel, America Is Not the Heart (2018), was a finalist for numerous prizes including the Elle Big Book Award, the Center for Fiction Prize, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize and was named a best book of 2018 by NPR, Real Simple, Lit Hub, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the New York Public Library. She is also the author of the acclaimed collection of essays How to Read Now (2022), the longform essay Good Girl: Notes on Dog Rescue (2024). She is the recipient of a 2026 Whiting Award for Fiction, a two-time San Francisco Public Library Laureate, a Berkeley Public Library Laureate, and has been longlisted for the 2026 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, in recognition of writers of national consequence. In the tradition of diasporic mothers everywhere, she works primarily so her rescue German shepherd Vincent can live a better life.