Literary Figures

Brendan Gill. He has written for The New Yorker magazine for more than 50 years, writing poems, prose, profiles and film and theater reviews. Gill also writes about architecture and has just written a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Writer Joan Didion. Known for her self-reflective essays and reporting, Didion is one of America's most important writers. Her books include A Book of Common Prayer, Slouching Toward Bethlehem and Salvador. With her husband John Gregory Dunne, she co-wrote the screenplay for "True Confessions." Her new book is titled Miami.

Playwright Wendy Wasserstein, author of an upcoming episode on the new PBS comedy series "Trying Times." Her other plays include Isn't it Romantic and Uncommon Women and Others.

Gordon Lish, editor of The Quarterly, a journal of new American writing. He's a leading exponent of the minimalist style of writing.

Indian writer Ved Mehta. He's written several books of autobiography, most all of which have been serialized in "The New Yorker" magazine. His autobiographies are poignant accounts of his blindness, his education in England, and the role that language came to play in his life.

Writer Michael Ignatieff. His new book, Russian Album, recalls, through diaries, photographs and a few mementoes, his forebearers, aristocrats at the time of the Russian Revolution. While most of the upper class was killed in the Revolution, Ignatieff's family fled to Canada.

Writer Jane Smiley. Her newest work, a combination of novella and short story, probes the disappointments and loss of middle age. It is titled The Age of Grief.

Francine Du Plessix Gray, journalist and novelist. She has written extensively about women and fashion. Her new book is a collection of essays that cover religion, the idea of home and the current moral climate.

Barry Gifford, publisher and founder of Black Lizard Press. The press specializes in reprints of hard-boiled detective fiction, complete with the original book jackets.

Psychotherapist Eileen Simpson grew up as an orphan; her mother died from tuberculosis. As a young adult, she moved to Greenwich Village and married the poet John Berryman. Writing came to her later in life, after she split up with the renowned poet. Her new book is called Orphans: Real and Imaginary.