Joan Didion

Joan Didion (1934–2021) was an influential American writer known for her incisive prose, journalistic precision, and ability to blend personal experience with cultural analysis. Born in Sacramento, California, she studied literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to publish essays, novels, memoirs, and screenplays. Didion became one of the defining voices of contemporary nonfiction, admired for her clarity, emotional depth, and introspective honesty. She collaborated throughout her career with her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, forming a celebrated literary partnership. Her work earned numerous honors, including a National Book Award and the National Humanities Medal. The Year of Magical Thinking remains one of her most influential and widely read works, later adapted for the stage and regarded as a cornerstone text in modern writing about grief and loss.