Zilia is a writer and actor based in Bloomington, Indiana. Her poems have been published in the online journal Comparative Woman, and in the books Trigger Warnings, edited by Joan Hawkins and Kalynn Brower, and Stormwash: Environmental Poems, edited by Hiromi Yoshida. Her work appeared in the 2023 Ryder Magazine, Poetry Edition and has been presented at spoken-word events hosted by the Writers Guild at Bloomington.
With Wild Swan Theater, she co-wrote the play Myths, Masks, and Magic: World Stories of First Times, was performed in Michigan schools and libraries and at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
She has a Master's in Information Science from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Folklore Studies from Indiana University. She works for the Hutton Honors College at Indiana University as an Academic Advisor.
In Summer 2022, she hiked and summitted Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.