Joan Didion was born in Sacramento. Her family was some of the first European settlers to California, with roots back to the Donner Party. Didion's writing engage in a semi-biographical journey through California, from perceptions of heritage in settler families in Sacramento to the realities of Hollywood and the counterculture of the 1960s, as well as, the political landscape throughout. In 1991, she was one of the first journalists to question the convictions of the Central Park Five in the mainstream media. She has won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize.