Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is a writer, editor, activist, critic and troublemaker.  Most recently, she is the author of the novel So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (City Lights 2008). She is also the editor of Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (Seal 2007), and an expanded second edition of That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (Soft Skull 2008). 

Mattilda's first novel was Pulling Taffy (Suspect Thoughts 2003), and she also edited Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving (Haworth 2004) and Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers Write about Their Clients (Haworth 2000), which now also appears in Italian (Effepi Libri 2007). 

Mattilda is currently working on a new anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform. She is immersed in Lostmissing: a public art project - about the friend who will always be there, and what happens when you lose that relationship. She is also working on a memoir called The End of San Francisco.

Mattilda’s articles, essays, interviews, reviews, and stories appear regularly in a variety of publications, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Bitch, Utne Reader, AlterNet, Bookslut, The Stranger, and The Gay & Lesbian Review, and she writes a monthly column in Maximumrocknroll.

Mattilda is the reviews editor at the feminist magazine Make/shift, where she also writes a column.

In 2010, Mattilda made a short film, All That Sheltering Emptiness, in collaboration with Gina Carducci.  Mattilda and Gina are currently working on a second film.

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 lives in San Francisco, but tours regularly, and is available for bookings. In the past, she has appeared in independent bookstores, community centers, performance venues and universities including Yale, Harvard, Brown, McGill, University of Chicago, Wesleyan, Macalester, NYU, UCLA, University of Massachusetts, Evergreen, DePauw, DePaul, Mills, Antioch, University of Michigan, Wagner, University of Oregon, UC Santa Cruz, Georgetown, and others.

Mattilda loves feedback, so contact her, okay?

You can also check in on her blog.