Order of Jane Smiley Books

Jane Smiley lives in California with her three children, sixteen horses, and three dogs. Born in Los Angeles, her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri when she was a baby, where she attended grade school and high school at The John Burroughs School. After graduating high school, Jane went to Vassar College, earning her BA in 1971. She then traveled across Europe, working on an archaeological dig while sightseeing. Upon returning to Iowa, she attended graduate school at the University of Iowa, where she earned her MFA and Ph.D. In 1981, she began teaching at Iowa State University in Ames, a position she held until 1996. Jane has been married three times and has two daughters and one son. She has written ten works of fiction, including A Thousand Acres, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Additionally, she has contributed essays to various magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times travel section, Vogue, and Allure, covering topics such as literature, horse training, Barbie, farming, and marriage. She is also the author of a book about craftspeople in the Catskills titled Crown.