Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri. She attended Community School and John Burroughs School before obtaining a BA in literature at Vassar College. Smiley furthered her studies at the University of Iowa, earning an MA, MFA, and PhD, while also spending a year in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar.

Smiley's writing career took off with the publication of her first novel, Barn Blind, in 1980. She gained recognition in 1985 with an O. Henry Award for her short story "Lily". However, it was her 1991 novel, A Thousand Acres, that brought her the most acclaim, earning her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992. This novel, based on William Shakespeare's King Lear, was later adapted into a film. Smiley also ventured into television and film, writing for an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street and having her novella The Age of Grief adapted into the film The Secret Lives of Dentists.

Smiley's works often revolve around family and have a pastoral setting. She has taught creative writing workshops at Iowa State University from 1981 to 1996, and continued to teach there even after moving to California. In 2001, she was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her non-fiction work, Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005), explores the history and nature of the novel. Smiley currently resides in California with her three children, a number of horses, and dogs.