Lannan Foundation

Don DeLillo was born and raised in New York City. He is the author of fifteen novels, including White Noise, Libra, Falling Man, and Point Omega, described by The New York Times as, "darkly comic novels about conspiracy, coincidence and obsession in late 20th century America." Of his influences as a writer he said, "I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, and jazz and Abstract Expressionism." His work has won many honors in this country and abroad--among them the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize and the PEN-Faulkner Award for Fiction. His novel Underworld won the William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Falling Man, DeLillo's haunting novel about September 11, begins in the smoke and ash of the burning towers and traces the aftermath of this global tremor in the altered lives of a few New Yorkers. About writing he said, "I write to find out how much I know. The act of writing for me is a concentrated form of thought."

Don DeLillo Bio and Cross Links

Mark Danner has written about foreign affairs and American politics for more than two decades, covering Latin America, Haiti, the Balkans and the Middle East among other stories. He was a staff writer for many years at The New Yorker and contributes frequently to The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine and other publications. He teaches at the University of California at Berkeley, and at Bard College, and speaks and debates widely about America's role in the world.

Mark Danner Bio and Cross Links