Joan Didion (1934-2021) was one of the most distinct American literary voices of the last century, the author of five novels and nine books of nonfiction, including
Slouching Towards Bethlehem,
The White Album,
Play It As It Lays, and the
New York Times best sellers
The Year of Magical Thinking,
Blue Nights, and
South and West. She was the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Book Award for Nonfiction and the National Book Foundations' Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
David L. Ulin is the author or editor of numerous books, including
Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles; the Library of America's
Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award; and
The Lost Art of Reading: Books and Resistance in a Troubled Time. The former book editor and book critic of the
Los Angeles Times, he teaches at the University of Southern California.