Transatlantic extends a warm welcome to Chris Villanueva Blackett!
Chris Villanueva Blackett is a native New Yorker, born to Filipino and English immigrants. His mom passed away when he was an infant, and his dad raised him with a deep appreciation for the escape that books provided: his childhood bedroom doubled as his library, filled with Isaac Asimov and Terry Pratchett.
Chris studied English Literature at Tufts University and after graduating, taught for several years in East Harlem with Teach for America. Recently, he received his MBA/MPA from NYU and now works as a corporate cog for an ed tech company while running a semi-successful (okay, maybe a stretch) education newsletter.
Growing up, he spent thirty-two summers visiting his titos, titas, lola, and his mother’s columbarium in Manila. Those experiences inform the characters and locales in TUMAKAS, his first novel, a Filipino folklore horror story set during Duterte’s war on drugs, following a washed-up detective and lonely call-center customer representative who discover that something old and monstrous has awakened and is killing those it deems unfit for society. He will also be published in a Filipino anthology called Galleon Dreaming by DILIM Press in October 2027.
He currently lives in New York City with his wife and dog.
Chris is represented by Jane Chun. Welcome, Chris!