James Conaway, born in Memphis, Tennessee, is an acclaimed author and journalist whose work has left an indelible mark on both American letters and the cultural history of wine country. Educated at the University of North Carolina, Southwestern at Memphis, and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in creative writing, Conaway began his career as a reporter for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, and his early experiences in the newsroom shaped the sharp observational style that would define his later books and essays. He went on to serve as a wine critic for the Washington Post and an editor at Harper’s Bazaar before dedicating himself to a life of freelance writing. Conaway is perhaps best known for his trilogy on Napa Valley: Napa: The Story of an American Eden (1990), The Far Side of Eden (2002), and Napa at Last Light (2018). Together, these works chronicle the transformation of Napa from a patchwork of small family farms to a global luxury destination, while also questioning the environmental and social costs of its rise. His candid portrayals of power struggles, land use battles, and the commercialization of wine earned him both acclaim and criticism within the wine industry. In addition to his books, Conaway has contributed essays and reportage to The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New Republic, Gourmet, Smithsonian, and National Geographic Traveler, among many others. His fiction includes The Big Easy, a novel drawn from his experiences as a crime reporter in New Orleans, and Nose, a satirical mystery set in Northern California’s wine country. Residing between Washington, D.C., and California, Conaway continues to write and reflect on the intersections of culture, landscape, and human ambition. His papers, including original Napa Valley notebooks, are archived at the UC Davis Wine Library, underscoring his lasting influence as one of the foremost chroniclers of America’s wine country and its broader environmental and cultural narratives. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ehlersestate.substack.com
