Deanne Stillman is the author of Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West, Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave, and Joshua Tree: Desolation Tango. A critically acclaimed work of literary nonfiction, Twentynine Palms was first published in 2001, and will be reissued in a new edition by Angel City Press in summer, 2008. The conclusion of a ten-year journey, the book explores the brutal murders of two young girls in a scenic Southern California military town by a Marine shortly after the Gulf War. The desert is a main character in the story, as it often is in Deanne's work. Her latest book, Mustang, was also ten years in the making, taking her deep into historical archives and across the wild horse ranges of the West, particularly Nevada, where most of the country's mustangs still roam. In it, she explores various questions, including why America, a cowboy nation, has turned its back on the wild horse, our great partner and icon.
In addition, Deanne is a widely published and anthologized writer, penning articles for the underground press before it was alternative. Since then, her reporting, essays, and commentary have appeared in Rolling Stone; Slate; Salon; The New York Times (Magazine, Book Review, Arts & Leisure, Travel); The Los Angeles Times (Magazine, Calendar, and Book Review); GQ; The Nation; Mademoiselle (former contributing editor); Los Angeles Magazine (former contributing editor); Tin House; Playboy; The New York Daily News; Newsday, and National Review Online, among others. She also is a former columnist for The Village Voice ("A Girl's Guide to Sports") and Buzz Magazine ("Eldorado"). She covered the Robert Blake case for Rolling Stone and the Phil Spector case for Spin and the UK Independent. Her latest Rolling Stone piece, "The Great Mojave Manhunt," appears in Best American Crime Writing 06 and was a finalist for a PEN journalism award. She also blogs on the huffingtonpost and laobserved, and has written for television and film, adapting Twentynine Palms for Tristar. The book is currently under option again, for the fifth time.
In addition, her plays Pray for Surf, Star Maps, and Inside the White House have won prizes in major theater festivals around the country. Pray for Surf was excerpted in The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and the Faber & Faber anthology Ladies, Start Your Engines. In 1995 she was commissioned by the Hudson Guild Theatre in Los Angeles to adapt Antigone. It was directed by Goran Gajic and starred Mira Furlan, winning a Dramalogue Award for best production of that year.
Originally from Ohio, Deanne has long been torn between two lovers. For a while, she consorted with her first, New York. Then, she decided to explore the West Coast, whereupon she took up with Los Angeles and the beach and the desert and all that the sand has to offer. Possibly the longest-running affair in town, it has continued for eighteen years, through fire, earthquake, and the thundering silence of phone calls gone unreturned. "I'll never be the first to leave," Deanne says, although she often cheats on LA with New Mexico and Arizona.
