JANET FITCH (Author) published her debut novel, White Oleander, in 1999. Within a month, talk show host Oprah Winfrey raved about the novel, calling the language "liquid poetry," and added it to her high-profile "Oprah's Book Club" as the May 1999 selection. It then vaulted to the top of five newspaper bestseller lists, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today. The short story upon which the novel is based was noted as a distinguished story in Best American Short Stories 1994.

A third-generation resident of Los Angeles, Fitch graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, majoring in history. She briefly attended film school in the Director's Program at the University of Southern California. She went on to edit a weekly newspaper in southwestern Colorado and served as the managing editor of American Film magazine. She has worked as a typesetter, a freelance journalist and editor.

Her fiction has appeared in such literary publications as A Room of One's Own, Black Warrior Review and Rain City Review. She is the author of a young adult novel, Kicks, and teaches writing through the UCLA Writing Program, Cal State Fullerton, and privately in the Los Angeles area. In the fall of 2001, Fitch served as the first Mosely Fellow in Creative Writing at Pomona College, Claremont.