About Ilana

Ever since she read the 39 original Oz books in elementary school, Ilana wanted to be a writer. She's worked as a newspaper reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento Bee and written grant proposals, brochures, op-eds, fundraising appeals, a non-fiction history book about girls' schools, and four unpublished novels. Imagine how delighted she is finally to be publishing Shaken Loose! (And how surprised she was, reading through the first draft, to notice certain parallels between Annie in Hell and Dorothy in Oz.)

Ilana was one of the co-founders of the Julia Morgan School for Girls, an all-girl middle school that opened in Oakland, California, in 1999. Her involvement with the school led her to write Where Girls Come First: The Rise, Fall, and Surprising Revival of Girls' Schools (Tarcher/Penguin, 2004). 

She lives in Oakland with her husband Sam and their extraordinarily fluffy cat Bowie. Her sequel to Shaken Loose will be published in 2024.