Galland was born in New York, but grew up in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, a farming community on the island of Martha's Vineyard.
[2] She graduated from Martha's Vineyard Regional High School as valedictorian of her class, before going on to study theatre and earn an honors degree in Comparative Religion at Harvard University, with a focus in Buddhism.
These included co-founding a teen theater company in California that debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.
[3] When her first novel, The Fool’s Tale, was published by William Morrow in 2005, she left her position as Literary Manager/Dramaturge at Berkeley Repertory Theatre to write full-time.
[4] Having resided in the California Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York City, Galland returned to Martha's Vineyard to live full-time.