Louise Steinman is co-director of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. For the past 19 years, as cultural programs director for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, she has curated the award-winning ALOUD series at the downtown Central Library. Her book,The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father’s War, awarded the Gold Medal in Autobiography from ForeWord Magazine—has been the selection of several all-city and all-freshman reading programs. Her first book,The Knowing Body:The Artist as Storyteller in Contemporary Performance, is based on her work as a creator of theater and a dance critic. Her essays and feature articles have appeared in many publications, including The Los Angeles Times Magazine and the New York Times syndicate. A contributing editor to the Los Angeles Review of Books, she is currently completing The Crooked Mirror: A Conversation with Poland. She has been a writer-in-residence at Mesa Refuge, Ucross Foundation, and Blue Mountain Center.