Derek Mascarenhas is a graduate of the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing Program, a finalist and runner up for the Penguin Random House of Canada Student Award for Fiction, and a nominee for the Marina Nemat Award. His fiction has been published in places such as Joyland, The Dalhousie Review, Switchback, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Cosmonauts Avenue, and The Antigonish Review. Derek is one of four children born to parents who emigrated from Goa, India, and settled in Burlington, Ontario. A backpacker who has traveled across six continents, Derek currently resides in Toronto. Coconut Dreams is his first book.

"Prepare to be delighted." —Kim Echlin, author of Under the Visible Life

"A moving, multifaceted debut." —Alissa York, author of The Naturalist

"The stories in Derek Mascarenhas’s Coconut Dreams remind one of
the high stakes in a child’s world, the way that danger looms just
fractionally outside safety. Like all proper enchantments, these
vignettes are dark, light, strange, and vivid such that they delight and
charm in equal portions." —Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, author of All the Broken Things