Jill Damatac

Courtesy of the Author

About The Author

Jill Damatac is a writer and filmmaker born in the Philippines, raised in the US, and now a UK citizen, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jill is a 2026 Haymarket Books and Mellon Foundation Writing Freedom Fellow and her film and photography work has been featured on the BBC and in Time, and at film festivals worldwide. Her short documentary film Blood and Ink (Dugo at Tinta), about the Indigenous Filipino tattooist Apo Whang Od, was an official selection at the Academy Award–qualifying DOC NYC and won Best Documentary at Ireland’s Kerry Film Festival. Jill holds an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Documentary Film from the University of the Arts London. Follow her on Instagram @JillDamatac.

Books by Jill Damatac

Dirty Kitchen

A Memoir of Food and Family

By Jill Damatac
“Searing…Jill Damatac tells the story of a fight for survival and culture in America.” —The New York Times
“A fiercely honest, eye-opening view of one undocumented family’s experiences trying to start over in a new world.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

In the st...
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The People's Project

Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward

By Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith
Read by Randall Mann
USA TODAY BESTSELLER

A liberatory anthology of twenty-seven writers—a community in book form—charting paths ahead for action and care in the face of political uncertainty, curated by Maggie Smith and Saeed Jones.
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