Susan Sontag was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays but also published novels. Her first major work, the essay Notes on 'Camp', was published in 1964.

Her best-known works include the critical pieces Against Interpretation (1966), On Photography (1977), Illness as Metaphor (1978), and Regarding the Pain of Others (2003). As for her fictional endeavors, they include The Way We Live Now (1986), The Volcano Lover (1992), and In America (1999).

Sontag was engaged in writing, speaking about, and traveling to areas of conflict, such as during the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote extensively on literature, photography and media, culture, AIDS and illness, war, human rights, and left-wing politics. She has been described as "one of the most influential critics of her generation."