Leonard Michaels was a renowned novelist, short story writer, and essayist, best known for his novel, The Men's Club, which centered on a group of men in the 70's, talking about their wives and lovers, some say in an attempt to raise consciousness. It was nominated by The National Book Critics Circle as the best novel of 1981 and was later adapted into a film in 1986.

Throughout his career, Michaels received many honors including, two Quill Awards, the O. Henry Prize, a Pushcart Prize, a National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Prize, as well as awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His many novels and short story collections include Going Places (1969), I Would Have Saved Them if I Could (1975), Silvia (1992), Time Out of Mind: The Diaries of Leonard Michaels 1961-1995 (1999), and A Girl With a Monkey, which was named the 2000 best fiction title by the Los Angeles Times. His book, To Feel These Things (1993), is a collection of nonfiction essays. Michaels taught at the University of California Davis briefly until 1969 when he began his 25-year tenure as an English professor at U.C. Berkeley.