Denis Johnson

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For Denis Johnson from London, who invented the bicycle forerunner called "hoy horse", see Denis Johnson (inventor).
Denis Johnson

Born 1949
Munich, Germany of American parents
Occupation Novelist
Nationality American
Writing period 1969-present
Genres Fiction
Influences
Influenced

Denis Johnson (born 1949 in Munich, West Germany) is an American author who is best known for his short story collection Jesus' Son (1992) and his novel Tree of Smoke (2007), which won the National Book Award.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Johnson was raised in Tokyo, Manila, and Washington.[citation needed] He holds a masters (MFA) degree from the University of Iowa.[citation needed] His work was influenced by the novelist Leonard Gardner.[citation needed] He has received many awards for his work, including a Whiting Writer’s Award (1986) and a Lannan Fellowship in Fiction in 1993.

Johnson first came to prominence after the publication of his short story collection Jesus' Son (1992). Jesus' Son was adapted into the 1999 film of the same name, whose cast included Jack Black, Billy Crudup, and Holly Hunter, and was named one of the top ten films of the year by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Roger Ebert. Johnson has a cameo role in the film as a man who has been stabbed in the eye by his wife.

In 2002 Johnson won the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction from The Paris Review for Train Dreams. In 2006-2007, Johnson held the Mitte Chair in creative writing at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

In 2007, Johnson published Tree of Smoke, his first full-length novel in nine years. Tree of Smoke won a National Book Award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.[3][4]

In June 2008, The New York Times announced that Johnson is working on Nobody Move, a Raymond Chandler-inspired noir serial novel that will appear in four installments in Playboy magazine from July to October 2008.[4]

[edit] Personal life

Johnson is twice divorced and lives with his third wife, Cindy Lee, in Arizona and Idaho.[5][6] Johnson has three children whom he homeschooled; in the late 1990s he wrote an article in Newsweek magazine in defense of homeschooling.[6]

[edit] Works

[edit] Poetry collections

  • The Man Amongst the Seals (1969)
  • Inner Weather
  • The Incognito Lounge
  • The Veil
  • The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly: Poems Collected and New

[edit] Novels

  • Angels (1983)
  • Fiskadoro (1985)
  • The Stars at Noon (1986)
  • Resuscitation of a Hanged Man (1991)
  • Already Dead: A California Gothic (1998)
  • The Name of the World (novella, 2000)
  • Train Dreams (novella, 2002)
  • Tree of Smoke (2007)
  • Nobody Move (2008)

[edit] Short story collection

[edit] Plays

Johnson's plays have been produced in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Seattle. He is the Resident Playwright of Campo Santo, the resident theater company at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco.

  • Hellhound on my Trail
  • Shoppers Carried by Escalators into the Flames
  • Soul of a Whore
  • AB Survival in the United States
  • Purvis
  • Des Moines (To be produced by Intersection for the Arts October 19 and 20, 2007)
  • Everything Has Been Arranged (An adaptation of Johnson's story Small Boys Unit, to be produced as part of Intersection for the Arts New Works Festival December 6-8, 2007)

[edit] Non-fiction

[edit] References

  1. ^ "What Authors Influenced You?", Authorsontheweb.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
  2. ^ "Scott Snyder", litpark, 2006-08-31. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
  3. ^ Thompson, Bob (2007-11-15), Johnson's 'Tree of Smoke' Wins National Book Award, Washington Post, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111402806.html>. Retrieved on 15 November 2007 
  4. ^ a b Sisario, Ben. "Arts, Briefly: Channeling Noir, Dickens-Style, The New York Times, 2008-06-11. Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
  5. ^ http://www.uiowa.edu/~iww/news/nba.html
  6. ^ a b Moore, Michael Scott. "Poet of the Fallen World: How an S.F. theater troupe helped turn a reclusive novelist into a full-fledged playwright" (reprint), SF Weekly, February 2003. Retrieved on 2008-06-11.

[edit] External links

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