Born in Santiago, Chile and raised in New England, Lily Philpott is an indigenous transracial adoptee. She has worked in the arts and culture nonprofit sector in New York City for close to a decade, and is a member of the Starlings Collective, a group supporting BIPOC adoptee writers; a co-chair of the International Literature Committee at the Brooklyn Book Festival; the curatorial committee of the 2024 PEN America World Voices Festival; and she volunteers as the Director of Programs with Singapore Unbound. She received her MFA in Fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA).
