Rebecca Solnit is the author of twelve books, including 2007's Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics, 2005's A Field Guide to Getting Lost, 2004’s Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, and 2003’s River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, which won a Guggenheim in its research phase and several awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism after publication. An activist and a longtime San Franciscan, she writes about landscape, cities, and other geographies, the environment, politics, and visual culture. A contributing editor to Harper's, columnist for Orion, and frequent contributor Tomdispatch.com, she is also a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award.