Lannan Foundation

Mike Davis was born in Fontana, California, 60 miles east of Los Angeles in 1946, and is a veteran of 1960's civil rights and anti-war movements. From his first book, Prisoners of the American Dream (1986), about unionism in the United States, to his most recent, Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb (2007), Davis' fearless writing in 18 books shines a fresh light on economic, social, environmental, and political injustice. Some of his other books include City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, Magical Urbanism, Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, In Praise of Barbarians, and No One is Illegal. He is currently working on a book about climate change, water, and power in the U.S. West and northern Mexico. A former meat cutter and long-distance truck driver, Davis has been a fellow at the Getty Institute and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1998. He teaches at the University of California, Irvine.

Mike Davis Bio and Cross Links

Susan Straight's novels include I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots (1993), Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights (1994), The Gettin Place (1996), and Highwire Moon (2001), which was a finalist for The National Book Award. Her essays have appeared in Harper's, salon.com, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The New York Times, and on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Straight's latest novel, A Million Nightingales (2007), continues her singularly beautiful exploration of race in America. Her short stories have appeared in McSweeney's and Zoetrope, among other publications. She has been awarded the California Book Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and a Best American Short Story Award. Straight was born in Riverside, California, and lives there with her three daughters. She is professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.

Susan Straight Bio and Cross Links