Allene Symons worked as a senior editor for Publishers Weekly in New York (1982-1988), and has written for consumer and specialty magazines. She has a bachelor’s in philosophy from San Francisco State University, and master’s degrees in the fields of Communications (Journalism) and in History of Religions (Buddhism). Born in Long Beach, California, she has lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. She now lives in Long Beach, California. She also worked as a part-time instructor in communications and media studies at Santa Ana College (2002-2016).

Freelance credits include articles, reviews and essays in Orange Coast magazine, Details, Los Angeles Times (book reviews and travel). She originated and wrote a travel lit review column, “Great Reads for the Restless,” for msnbc.com (1999-2000).

Her latest book is Love in a Time of Caterpillars: A Memoir of Monarchs and Caregiving (Forked Road Press, February 2024). Her last book was Aldous Huxley’s Hands: His Quest for Perception and the Origin and Return of Psychedelic Science (Prometheus Books, 2015).

She also wrote Nostradamus, Vagabond Prophet: A Novel of His Life and Time (Forked Road Press, a 2011 revised edition of Vagabond Prophet, Avon Books, 1983), and she was co-author with Jane Parker of the nonfiction title Adventures Abroad: Exploring the Travel/Retirement Option (Gateway Books/Globe Pequot, 1991).

Also see her CV at Authors Guild  Authors Guild and CV