Jane Smiley

American novelist · United States · On the map · Writers · Born 1949 · age 77

Jane Smiley is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991).

Jane Smiley is read about 74 times a day, in 25 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 104 days, one point a day.

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A life in dates

2023Society of American Historians Prize for Historical FictionAward2015“She said, “Some are born bossy, some achieve bossiness, and some have bossiness thrust upon them.”In their words2015Read the whole statement

2006“Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.”In their wordsCh. 2Read the whole statement

2004“What truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute - for horses.”In their wordsCh. 3Read the whole statement

“Failure was startling, really. So startling that I hardly noticed it at all.”In their wordsCh. 7Read the whole statement

“It is neither floating nor springing.”In their wordsCh. 16Read the whole statement

1999“He had accepted that if you were a bookish person the events in your life took place in your head.”In their words1999Read the whole statement

1991National Book Critics Circle Award for FictionAward1985O. Henry AwardAward1949Born26 September 1949

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Smiley speaking at the Vancouver Writers Fest on her 2014 novel, Some Luck

In their own words 4

Jane Smiley

4 statements, newest first

If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.
2006 · Introduction, Own words
A novelist has two lives - a reading and writing life, and a lived life. he or she cannot be understood at all apart from this.
2006 · Ch. 3, Own words
Fascination with horses predated every other single thing I knew.
2004 · Ch. 3, Own words