Marilyn Pollack Naron grew up in Chicago, where she spent a lot of time reading her mom's 1970s cookbooks and dragging sketchbooks up into trees. She studied journalism and worked as a writer, went to culinary school and worked as a pastry chef, and today works as an illustrator (it was a way back to sketchbooks). She works primarily in paint and ink, and her work is largely inspired by bakery kitchens, fish markets, cocktail garnishes, and memories of being screamed at by five-star chefs.  Her illustrations can be seen on the shelf in A Meatloaf in Every Oven, (Hachette Book Group/Grand Central Publishing, February, 2017) a "love letter to meatloaf" cookbook by New York Times journalists Frank Bruni and Jennifer Steinhauer.

Marilyn lives with her husband and college-kid daughter in Lawrence, Kansas, where she enjoys excellent BBQ and gets to work in coffee shops.