Donna Wares is a writer, editor and live event producer and the architect of the Los Angeles Times Book Club, a community forum that welcomed such authors and thought leaders as President Obama, Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Gabrielle Zevin, Amanda Gorman, Celeste Ng, Michael Connelly, LeVar Burton, Julie Andrews, Lisa See, Ann Patchett and Father Gregory Boyle. She began her career at the Miami Herald writing about the environment on Florida’s Gulf Coast, served as managing editor at the Orange County Register and created the Northwest Passages Book Club and community foundation in Spokane, Wash. The author of three books, she edited the bestselling “My California: Journeys by Great Writers” anthology, which funded writing programs for children throughout the state. Her joy is fostering and adopting retired racing greyhounds and other rescues that find their way to her couch.