Smiley, Jane (1949–)

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Smiley, Jane (1949–)

American novelist and short-story writer. Born Sept 26, 1949, in Los Angeles, California; raised in suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri; Vassar College, BA, 1971; University of Iowa, MA, 1975, MFA, 1976, PhD, 1978; m. John Whiston, 1970 (div. 1975); m. William Slag, 1978 (div. 1986); m. Stephen Mortensen, 1987 (div. 1997); children: (2nd m.) Phoebe and Lucy Slag; (3rd m.) A. J. Mortenson.

Taught at Iowa State University (1981–96); published 1st novel, Barn Blind (1980); won Pulitzer Prize for novel A Thousand Acres (1991), a reworking of King Lear set in a farming community in Iowa; also wrote the novels The Greenlanders (1988), Moo (1995), The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (1998), Horse Heaven (2000) and Good Faith (2003); short story collections include The Age of Grief (1987) and Ordinary Love and Good Will (1989).