Joan Didion
Joan Didion (1934-2021) was an American writer and journalist. After graduating from the University of California, she moved to New York and started working at Vogue. Her memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking" won the 2005 National Book Award and was awarded the Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in the criticism and Belles Letters category. In 2007, she received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. The US PEN Center awarded Didion with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2013, President Barack Obama presented her with the National Medal of Arts and Humanities.