D. J. Waldie is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and California Romantica (among other books about Los Angeles and Southern California). He is a contributing writer for Los Angeles magazine and a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Times. He is the recipient of Whiting, National Endowment for the Humanities, California Arts Council, and California Book awards, among others. He has been a city official of Lakewood since 1977.