About Anna

Bio / Profile

Anna Boorstin’s life story reads like a film script.

She grew up riding horses, playing board games, and checking out ten books at a time from the public library. She adored her loving parents, as well as her stepfather—renowned director Alan J. Pakula (To Kill a Mockingbird, All the President’s Men, Sophie’s Choice). But life has its plot twists. The tragic loss of first her father and later her stepfather left Anna with a lasting personal knowledge of grief and goodbyes.

 

A Yale graduate, Anna began her Hollywood career at a small sound house, moved on to the infamous Cannon Films, the maverick 1980s studio legendary for its frugality and unforgettable action flicks. From there, she became an industry sound editor, working on an array of movies for other studios. Three films became cult classics of the 1980s—Real Genius, Beaches, and Clue—featuring some of the era’s brightest stars, from Val Kilmer and Bette Midler to Tim Curry and Madeline Kahn to Mayim Bialik and Christopher Lloyd, and more.

 

At the peak of professional success, Anna chose a different life path. She raised three children (and a menagerie of pets) before returning to her first love: writing. Anna’s debut novel, No Place Like (2025), blends cinematic clarity with literary heart in a multiverse tale led by a seventy-something heroine who breaks the age barriers often found in speculative fiction.