Denis Johnson (1 July 1949 – 24 May 2017) was an award-winning American writer who is known for his novel Tree of Smoke as well as his short story collection Jesus’ Son.
Fun Facts about Denis Johnson:
- Denis Johnson was born in Munich, West Germany. His father, Alfred, worked for the US State Department as a liaison between the US Information Agency and the CIA. The family also lived in the Philippines, Japan, and Washington D.C.
- The author graduated from the University of Iowa, and got his M.F.A. from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, taking classes from Raymond Carver. He later returned to teach at the workshop.
- At the age of 19, Denis Johnson published his first book of poetry titled The Man Among Seals.
- Fourteen years later, in 1983, Mr. Johnson published his first novel, Angels.
- The reason for the gap was that Mr. Johnson was addicted to drugs in his twenties and did not do much writing.
- Nine years later, in 1992, Denis Johnson’s short story collection Jesus’ Son was published to great acclaim. The collection was inspired by Russian author Isaac Babel’s book Red Cavalry.
- In 2007, the book Tree of Smoke won the National Book Award for Fiction, as well as a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist (2008).
- His novella, Train Dreams (2011 but originally published in The Paris Review in 2002) was also chosen as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
That year, however, the board did not award a prize for fiction at all. - Denis Johnson wrote nine novels, one novella, two short stories collections, three poetry collections, two play collections and one book of reportage.
- Johnson homeschooled two of his three children and even wrote an article for Salon defending the practice.
Zohar — Man of la Book
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