[1] She is the author of two novels, The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street (2014)[2] and Donna Has Left the Building[3] (2019) in addition to three non-fiction books: Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven (2009); Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress (2005); and Kiss My Tiara (2001).

She has been a contributor to NPR's "All Things Considered,[7]" and won literary awards for her journalism, short fiction, and audio book recordings.

[11][12][13] The topics range from growing up with hippy parents, meeting Mick Jagger, getting bullied at school, and moving overseas.

It follows the rise and fall of Lillian Dunkle, a Russian immigrant who arrives in America as a child in 1914 and goes on become the doyenne of an empire of ice cream franchises over the course of 70 years.

[15] Gilman's second novel, Donna Has Left the Building, chronicles Donna Koczynski, a wife, mother, former punk rocker, and recovering alcoholic who blows up her own life and takes off on an epic quest across America that ultimately lands her in the middle of a refugee crisis halfway around the globe.