Author
Jane Smiley
Birth Date
September 26, 1949
(76 Years)
Associated Country
United States
Jane Smiley is an American writer known for her wide-ranging fiction and insightful explorations of family, society, and moral complexity. She was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Smiley studied literature at Vassar College and later earned advanced degrees from University of Iowa, where she was also associated with the renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
She is best known for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991), a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear set on an Iowa farm. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 and brought her widespread recognition. Smiley has written many other works, including Moo (1995), Horse Heaven (2000), and a historical trilogy beginning with Some Luck (2014), demonstrating her versatility across genres and subjects.
In addition to fiction, Smiley has written essays and nonfiction on literature, including books about writing and reading. She is admired for her clear prose, intellectual depth, and ability to portray complex human relationships, making her an important figure in contemporary American literature.
She is best known for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991), a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear set on an Iowa farm. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 and brought her widespread recognition. Smiley has written many other works, including Moo (1995), Horse Heaven (2000), and a historical trilogy beginning with Some Luck (2014), demonstrating her versatility across genres and subjects.
In addition to fiction, Smiley has written essays and nonfiction on literature, including books about writing and reading. She is admired for her clear prose, intellectual depth, and ability to portray complex human relationships, making her an important figure in contemporary American literature.
Books
Lidie 2026
Christmas, 1857. America's future is precarious; civil war looms on the horizon. After her abolitionist husband is murdered in the lawless Kansas Territory, Lidie Newton returns, in mourning, to her...
Lucky 2025
Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky—and that...
A Dangerous Business 2023
Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men...
Perestroika in Paris 2021
Paras, short for "Perestroika," is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon at dusk, she finds the door of her stall open and—she's a curious filly—wanders all the way to the...
Golden Age 2016
It’s 1987, and the next generation of Langdons is facing economic, social, and political challenges unlike anything their ancestors have encountered. Michael and Richie, twin sons of World War II hero...
Early Warning 2016
It’s 1953, and the Langdons are at a crossroads. Walter, their stalwart patriarch, has died unexpectedly, and his wife must try to keep their farm going. But of their five children, only one will...
Some Luck 2015
1920, Denby, Iowa: Rosanna and Walter Langdon have just welcomed their firstborn son, Frank, into their family farm. He will be the oldest of five.
Each chapter in this extraordinary novel...
Charles Dickens 2011
This biographical deep dive offers brilliant interpretations of almost all the major works, an exploration of Dickens's narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes, and a reflection on...
Private Life 2011
Here is the powerful, deeply affecting story of one Margaret Mayfield. When Margaret marries Captain Andrew Jackson Jefferson Early at the age of twenty-seven, she narrowly avoids condemning herself...
One night in the late 1930s, in a bar on the Illinois-Iowa border, John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of physics at Iowa State University, after a frustrating day performing tedious mathematical...
Moo 2009
In this darkly satirical send-up of academia and the Midwest, we are introduced to Moo University, a distinguished institution devoted to the study of agriculture. Amid cow pastures and waving fields...
In the aftermath of the 2003 Academy Awards, Max and Elena—he's an Oscar-winning writer/director—open their Holywood Hills home to a group of friends and neighbors, industy insiders and hangers–on,...
In Ordinary Love, Smiley focuses on a woman’s infidelity and the lasting, indelible effects it leaves on her children long after her departure. Good Will portrays a father who realizes how his son has...
The Greenlanders 2005
Jane Smiley brings us to a farflung place of glittering fjords, blasting winds, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains. This is the story of one family: proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his...
Duplicate Keys 2004
Alice Ellis is a Midwestern refugee living in Manhattan. Still recovering from a painful divorce, she depends on the companionship and camaraderie of tightly knit circle of friends. At the center of...
Good Faith 2004
Forthright, likable Joe Stratford is the kind of local businessman everybody trusts, for good reason. But it’s 1982, and even in Joe’s small town, values are in upheaval: not just property values,...
A Thousand Acres 2003
On a prosperous farm in Iowa, Larry Cook decides to divide his vast land among his three daughters, an act that sets off a chain of events that will fracture the family. Ginny and Rose, the two...
The Age of Grief 2002
In “The Pleasure of Her Company,” a lonely, single woman befriends the married couple next door, hoping to learn the secret of their happiness. In “Long Distance,” a man finds himself relieved of the...
Horse Heaven 2001
“It’s not true,” says a character in Jane Smiley’s funny, passionate, and brilliant novel of horse racing, “that anything can happen at the racetrack,” but many astonishing and affecting things do—and...
At Paradise Gate 1998
In this brilliant novel, Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author Jane Smiley delves into the domestic drama of the Robison family. While seventy-seven-year-old Ike Robison is dying in his...