Novelist, essayist and screenwriter Joan Didion has been an incisive observer of American politics and culture for more than forty-five years. Her distinctive blend of spare, elegant prose and fierce intelligence has earned her books a place in the canon of American literature as well as the admiration of generations of writers and journalists.
In 2005 she won the National Book Award for The Year of Magical Thinking, which is now in its 20th printing. Chronicling the year following her husband’s death, the book is both a vivid personal account of losing a partner and a broader attempt to describe the mechanism that governs grief and mourning. In 2007 Didion adapted The Year of Magical Thinking into a play, which debuted on Broadway starring Vanessa Redgrave.
Didion’s novels include A Book of Common Prayer and Democracy, and her non-fiction books include Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Salvador and Where I Was From. Didion and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, co-authored five screenplays including The Panic in Needle Park, A Star Is Born and Up Close and Personal.
Her honors include the Gold Medal for Belles Lettres from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the 2007 National Book Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
“In spite of howling rain, Joan drew about 800 guests to the lecture. Her reading left everyone rather silent, stunned, introspective, and needing to tell people they love, simply, that they love them. I thought it was awesome. She is a gem.”- Willamette University
