JOAN DIDION (1934-2021) was born in Sacramento, California. After
graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, Didion moved to New York and began working for Vogue. She went on to write five novels and ten nonfiction books, as well as co-authoring screenplays with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, for 'The Panic in Needle Park', 'Play It as It Lays', and 'A Star is Born', among others. Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. In 2007, she was awarded the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American
Letters. In 2013, she was awarded a National Medal of Arts and Humanities by President Barack Obama, and the PEN Centre USA's Lifetime Achievement Award.