Evelyn McDonnell Drops 'The World According To Joan Didion'

Eighty-nine years and two days after her birth and almost two years after her death, the author and journalist Joan Didion will be celebrated December 7th at "Remembering Joan Didion," a gathering of writers and performers at the historic Algonquin Hotel in New York. 

Evelyn McDonnell, author of The World According to Joan Didion (Harper One, 2023), will be joined by Cara Buckley (New York Times), Peter Noel (Village Voice), Shana L. Redmond (Everything Man:  The Form and Function of Paul Robeson), Alex Segura (Secret Identity), and performer Tammy Faye Starlite (She's a Rainbow).  Artwork by Anne Muntges will be available for purchase.

In The World According to Joan Didion, Evelyn McDonnell, acclaimed journalist, essayist, critic, and university professor, provides an intimate exploration of the life, craft, and legacy of one of the most respected and significant writers of our time.

Joan Didion reshaped the geography of American literature by redirecting readers’ attention away from the east and toward the way the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. She wrote about the world she knew—the rivers, the freeways, the mountains, the ocean, the buildings—and she wrote about it with such an eye for detail and an ear for music, and with such a mix of appreciation and skepticism, the reader feels like they are along for the ride. 

McDonnell provides a guide to the life of Joan Didion, groundbreaking journalist, essayist, novelist, and screenwriter. This book serves as a notebook and a map, a treasure hunt, an interrogation. Follow along with McDonnell as she talks to those who knew Didion and were inspired by her.

Travel to the places Didion lived and documented, dig through archives and dive deep into her writing. This book is a meditation on the people, settings, and objects that propelled Didion’s prose and an invitation to journalists, storytellers, and all life adventurers to “throw themselves into the convulsions of the world,” as Didion once said.

"Remembering Joan Didion" will take place Thursday, December 7th from 6pm to 8pm at the Algonquin Hotel, 59 W. 44th St NYC.  Admission is free, but please RSVP here.  The event is hosted by Susie J. Horgan and Willis Loughhead.  Books will be sold by Books and Books.  

The Algonquin Hotel, Autograph Collection: A legendary literary hotel, exactly like no other, home of the infamous Round Table.  The oldest operating hotel in New York City, since 1902.

Evelyn McDonnell has written or coedited multiple books, including Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyonce, Girl Groups to Riot and Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways. She has been a pop culture writer at the Miami Herald and a senior editor at the Village Voice. Her writing has appeared in anthologies and publications, including the New York Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Ms., and Billboard. She teaches journalism at Loyola Marymount University and lives in San Pedro, California.

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