Lily Burana photo

Lily Burana

Lily Burana is the author of three books, including Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America, Try, and a memoir entitled I Love a Man in Uniform. Strip City was named Best Memoir in 2008 and Best Book of the Year in 2001 by Entertainment Weekly.

Burana also works as a journalist and has freelanced for The Washington Post, GQ, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Self, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Details, The Village Voice, and The New York Observer. She serves as a contributing editor for New York Magazine and Spin.

Burana married a Lieutenant Colonel in 2002. In 2008, she founded Operation Bombshell, a burlesque school for military wives. She currently lives with her husband in New York.


“Soon I was weeping---for the reservists who put their entire lives on hold when called to duty, for the military mothers who had to keep their families together all alone, for the parents, spouses, sons, and daughters who were beset with worry, for Mike, and for the soldiers who would never come home. I only meant to buy a shower curtain, and now, quite unexpectedly, right when I least wanted it, months of pent-up loneliness, fear, and frustration were pouring out in an endless churn of hot, silent tears.”
Lily Burana
Read more
“Somewhere nere Ogallala, about six hours into that majestic, maddening prairie, I realize that half an hour has passed since I've seen a vehicle in either direction.Oh, I think, as I finally see a pair of headlights draw nigh in the eastbound lane, so this must be where the West begins.”
Lily Burana
Read more
“The best stage name is already taken . . . I have to come up with something else. . . . I guess you begin with what resonates, what sounds like who you want to be.”
Lily Burana
Read more