Lily Burana

Lily Burana had given up on stripping years before she accepted a marriage proposal-but decided to strip her way from Florida to Alaska before settling down. Lily, now a successful journalist, looks back at stripping with a writer's perspective. Her humorous yet hard-edged memoir deftly describes funky clubs and offbeat characters, the exhilaration that overtakes a dancer on stage-and the darker realities that assail her heart when she's out of the spotlight. Strip City is both a hugely entertaining insider's account of a hidden world and a moving voyage of self-discovery. Lily Burana has written for The New York Times Book Review, GQ, New York magazine, The Village Voice, Spin, and Salon. She lives in New York State. This is her rst book.

A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America

Strip City

Various Authors

Roxxie Linnea Due

An anthology collection of writings by and/or about Butches

On Butch Women

Dagger

Returning to Wyoming mountain country to help sell the family homestead, young artist Daryl Heatherly resists her feelings for rodeo champion J. W. Jarrett, whom she discovers likes to practice his competitive talents outside of the rodeo circuit. A first novel by the author of Strip City. 40,000 first printing.

Lily Burana was in crisis. Therapy, medication, and meditation had failed to lift her worsening depression, and the punk-rock-girl-turned-writer feared she would die. Desperate for rescue, Lily turned to her remedy of last resort: faith. A lapsed Presbyterian who had drifted away from the church and into a life on the margins during her young adult years, Lily had long believed that Christianity had nothing to offer her. But in a last-ditch effort to save her life, she railed at God to send her a sign--and was shocked when he followed through. Reluctantly but resolutely, she decided to let God in, just a little bit, and commit to believing that the gospel is true. Grace for Amateurs is a collection of linked essays that chronicles Lily's rocky road back to spiritual recovery. "I'm not so much looking 'to be made new' through Christ," she says, "but to be made, I don't know, 17 percent less horrible." Addressing themes as diverse as coming out as Christian to your non-Christian friends, the wonderful awfulness of Christian rock music, the intersection of faith and motherhood, and the effects of trauma on our souls, Lily holds nothing back as she wrestles with the obstacles that make belief so challenging. Readers of Rachel Held Evans, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and Anne Lamott will recognize Lily Burana as a kindred spirit who is honest about her struggles with a faith that sometimes seems exclusionary and hostile. Whether the material is heart-wrenching or humorous, Lily's writing is both intelligent and down-to-earth, and her sentences are artful while still capturing the rawness and intensity of her emotions. Lily insists that "Grace for Amateurs is not a 'God struck me with a bolt of lightning and I was instantly healed' salvation story. Rather, it is about choosing to believe, while doggedly pursuing faith as an agent of healing. It is about showing up, doing the hard work, and recognizing God's mercy when it wings in to help ease the way. It is about devotion, the gritty miracle of grace, and developing the will to survive and the audacity to flourish."

Field Notes on a Journey Back to Faith

Grace for Amateurs

I had tried everything: therapy, medication, meditation. Everything except God. Lily Burana was in crisis. Desperate for rescue from her depression and anxiety, the punk-rock-girl-turned-writer feared she would die. She was down to her remedy of last resort: faith. A lapsed believer who had drifted away from the church and into a life on the margins during her young adult years, Lily had long believed that Christianity had nothing to offer her. Then an unmistakable sign from above led to her unexpected decision to let God in—just a little bit. But how could she come to terms with a religion she had dismissed as hostile and intolerant? In this collection of linked essays that chronicle her spiritual recovery, Lily explores what it means to embrace “a faith of surprisingly Jesus-y shape.” Lily navigates her own unique path toward a trusting relationship with God as she addresses topics as diverse as coming out as Christian to your non-Christian friends, the intersection of faith and motherhood, and what it means to confront your history of mental illness and trauma. Whether recounting her history as a “baby Goth,” extolling the healing power of glitter, or wrestling with God for control over her life, Lily proves that you don’t need to have a flawless faith in order to experience God’s grace in action. “Grace for Amateurs is that rare Christian book packed with humor, depth, kindness, intelligence, and inclusion. If you yearn to return to the heart of faith—boundless, agenda-less love—sit down with Burana. She’ll make you laugh and restore your hope.” —Glennon Doyle, New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and Carry On, Warrior

From the author of the acclaimed memoir "Strip City" comes an eloquent and funny account of this former punk-rock stripper's unlikely marriage to an officer in the U.S. Army. From harrowing emotion to the dishy details of being an Army wife, Burana bares her heart and soul as a modern military spouse.

Lily Burana

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