D. J. Waldie

A writer of pithy grace, compassion and insight

– Kevin Starr, Los Angeles Times Book Review (1996)

One of the most artful authors writing about Los Angeles today

– Library Foundation of Los Angeles (2020)

One of the most respected contemporary voices on life in Southern California

– Colin Marshall, The New Yorker (2021)

A cultural critic and philosopher of Los Angeles culture, one who is on par with other distinguished thinkers of Los Angeles

– Jonathan van Harmelen, Southern California Quarterly (2021)

I think there really is no more keen observer of life in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles region than D. J. Waldie.

– Ken Bernstein, The Planning Report, (2023)

Los Angeles’ elegant observer

–Jim Newton, LMU magazine (2024)

D. J. Waldie is a cultural historian, memoirist, and translator. In books, essays, and online commentary, he has sought to frame his suburban experience as a search for a sense of place. Often using his Southern California hometown of Lakewood as a starting point, Waldie’s work ranges widely over the history of suburbanization and its cultural effects.

Although best known for Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, Waldie also is regarded as a thoughtful observer of Los Angeles' history, politics, and culture.

"Nobody 'sees' L.A. with more eloquence than D. J. Waldie," noted Susan Brenneman, Los Angeles Times Deputy Op-Ed Editor, in May 2014. And "Waldie ... is one of the writers responsible for developing a Southern California aesthetic in which what's most vivid about the place is everything we might take for granted somewhere else," said David Ulin, book critic of the Los Angeles Times in April 2014.