Jillian Lauren

Author and performer Jillian Lauren grew up in suburban New Jersey and fled across the water to New York City. She attended New York University for three minutes before dropping out to work in downtown theater, where she performed with Richard Foreman's Ontological Hysteric Theater, among others. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, was published by Plume in April 2010. It has since been translated into fourteen different languages. Her novel, Pretty, will be released from Plume on August 30, 2011. Jillian has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Flaunt Magazine, Opium Magazine, Society, Pale House: A Collective and in the anthology My First Time: A Collection of First Punk Show Stories and Tarnished. She has performed at spoken word and storytelling events across the country and has been interviewed on such television programs as The View, Good Morning America and Howard Stern. She was a featured dancer with the infamous Velvet Hammer Burlesque. As a performer, she has worked with directors as diverse as Robert Cucuzza, Steve Balderson, Lynne Breedlove, Austin Young,Michelle Carr and Margaret Cho. She recently premiered her solo performance piece, Mother Tongue, at The Steve Allen Theater in Los Angeles. Jillian regularly blogs at Today Moms, The Nest and Jillianlauren.com She is married to musician Scott Shriner. They live in Los Angeles with their son.