It takes place during the Vietnam War, spanning the years 1963–70, with a coda set in 1983. Tree of Smoke won the 2007 National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It was adapted into the 2022 film Stars at Noon by director Claire Denis, starring Joe Alwyn and Margaret Qualley. The Stars at Noon (1986), a spy thriller, follows an unnamed American woman during the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1984. Johnson has a cameo role in the film as a man who has been stabbed in the eye by his wife. It was adapted into the 1999 film of the same name, which starred Billy Crudup. It has been variously described as: seminal, legendary, transcendent, a classic, and a masterpiece. In a 2006 New York Times Book Review poll, Jesus' Son was voted one of the best works of American fiction published in the last 25 years.

He came to prominence in 1992 with the short story collection Jesus' Son, which included vignettes originally published in The New Yorker, inspired by Isaac Babel’s book Red Cavalry. He earned a measure of acclaim with the publication of his first novel, Angels, in 1983. Johnson published his first book, a collection of poetry titled The Man Among Seals, in 1969 at the age of 19. While at the Writers' Workshop, Johnson took classes from Raymond Carver.

(in 1974) from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he also returned to teach. in English (in 1971) from the University of Iowa and an M.F.A. His mother, the former Vera Louise Childress, was a homemaker. His father, Alfred Johnson, worked for the State Department as a liaison between the USIA and the CIA. Growing up, he also lived in the Philippines, Japan, and the suburbs of Washington, D.C. His final work, a book of short stories titled The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, was published posthumously in 2018.ĭenis Johnson was born on July 1, 1949, in Munich, West Germany. Altogether, Johnson was the author of nine novels, one novella, two books of short stories, three collections of poetry, two collections of plays, and one book of reportage. Johnson was twice shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His most successful novel, Tree of Smoke (2007), won the National Book Award for Fiction. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, Jesus' Son (1992). National Book Award National Poetry Series awardĭenis Hale Johnson (J– May 24, 2017) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet.

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