Denis Johnson
Denis Hale Johnson (July 1, 1949 – May 24, 2017) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, Jesus' Son (1992). His most successful novel, Tree of Smoke (2007), won the National Book Award for Fiction.
Also recorded as Dionysius Johnson · Dennis Johnson
Denis Johnson

© Oliver Mark · Oliver Mark · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Full name
- Denis Hale Johnson.
- Born
- 1949. · Munich.
- Died
- 2017. · Sea Ranch.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- poet, novelist, writer, screenwriter, actor and playwright.
- Education
- University of Iowa.
- Known for
- Jesus' Son, Tree of Smoke, Angels, The Laughing Monsters and The Name of the World.
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship, National Book Award for Fiction, O. Henry Award, Whiting Awards, Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction and Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction.
- Languages
- English.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Denis Hale Johnson (July 1, 1949 – May 24, 2017) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, Jesus' Son (1992). His most successful novel, Tree of Smoke (2007), won the National Book Award for Fiction.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Denis Johnson (1949–2017) was an American actor, essayist and film actor, among other activities. Born Denis Hale Johnson in Munich, the actor died in Sea Ranch.
Denis Johnson studied at University of Iowa. The actor was a member of American Academy of Arts and Letters and lived in Sea Ranch.
Works include Angels, Jesus' Son, The Laughing Monsters and The Name of the World, among others. Languages used include English. Denis Johnson received Guggenheim Fellowship, Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction and National Book Award for Fiction, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Denis Johnson. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q340016 · wikipedia · Denis Johnson
In this article
Early years
Early years
Johnson was twice shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 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. His final work, a book of short stories titled The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, was published posthumously in 2018. Ted Geltner's biography of the writer, Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures, appeared in late 2025.
Denis Johnson studied at University of Iowa. The recorded working language is English. Fat City is recorded as an influence. Residence is recorded at Sea Ranch. Works named in the authority record are Jesus' Son, Tree of Smoke, Angels, The Laughing Monsters and The Name of the World. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship, National Book Award for Fiction, O. Henry Award and Whiting Awards.
Denis Johnson was born on July 1, 1949, in Munich, West Germany. Growing up, he also lived in the Philippines, Japan, and the suburbs of Washington, D.C. His father, Alfred Johnson, worked for the State Department as a liaison between the USIA and the CIA. His mother, the former Vera Louise Childress, was a homemaker. He earned a B.A. in English (in 1971) from the University of Iowa and an M.F.A. (in 1974) from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he also returned to teach. While at the Writers' Workshop, Johnson took classes from Raymond Carver.
Career
Career
Johnson published his first book, a collection of poetry titled The Man Among Seals, in 1969 at the age of 19. He earned a measure of acclaim with the publication of his first novel, Angels, in 1983. In 1979, the Arizona Commission on the Arts and Humanities awarded him a fellowship, and he taught creative writing at the state prison in Florence, Arizona, from 1979 to 1981. This life-changing experience, in particular his work with two death-row inmates, impelled Johnson to finish Angels, a novel he had started years before. The Stars at Noon (1986), a spy thriller, follows an unnamed American woman during the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1984. It was adapted into the 2022 film Stars at Noon by director Claire Denis, starring Joe Alwyn and Margaret Qualley. Tree of Smoke won the 2007 National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It takes place during the Vietnam War, spanning the years 1963–70, with a coda set in 1983. In the novel, we learn the history of Bill Houston, a main character in Johnson's first novel Angels, the latter novel set in the early 1980s. Johnson 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. The first story "Car Crash While Hitchhiking" was published in The Paris Review. 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. It has been variously described as: seminal, legendary, transcendent, a classic, and a masterpiece. It was adapted into the 1999 film of the same name, which starred Billy Crudup. Johnson has a cameo role in the film as a man who has been stabbed in the eye by his wife. Train Dreams, originally published as a story in The Paris Review in 2002, was published as a novella in 2011 and was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. However, for the first time since 1977, the Pulitzer board did not award a prize for fiction that year. The novella was adapted into a film with the same title, directed and co-written by Clint Bentley. It premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix to premiere the same year. Johnson's plays have been produced in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Seattle. He was the Resident Playwright of Campo Santo, the resident theater company at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco. In 2006 and 2007, Johnson held the Mitte Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. Johnson also occasionally taught at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. The final book he published while still alive was the novel The Laughing Monsters, which he called a "literary thriller" set in Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Congo. It was released in 2014. Johnson's final work, a book of short stories titled The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, was published posthumously in January 2018.
Personal life
Personal life
Johnson was twice divorced and lived with his third wife, Cindy Lee, in Phoenix, Arizona, at the time of his death. They also shared a home in Idaho. Johnson had three children, two of whom he homeschooled; in October 1997, he wrote an article for the website Salon in defense of homeschooling. For most of his 20s, Johnson was addicted to drugs and alcohol and did not do much writing. In 1978, he moved to his parents' home in Scottsdale, Arizona to sober up and find direction. He stopped drinking alcohol in 1978 and quit recreational drugs in 1983. In his essay "Bikers for Jesus," Johnson described himself as "a Christian convert, but one of the airy, sophisticated kind."
Death
Death
Johnson died on May 24, 2017, from liver cancer at his home in The Sea Ranch, a community near Gualala, California, at the age of 67.
Novels
Novels
Angels (Knopf, 1983) ISBN 9780394532257 Fiskadoro (Knopf, 1985) ISBN 9780394538396 The Stars at Noon (Knopf, 1986) ISBN 9780394538402 Resuscitation of a Hanged Man (Farrar, Straus & Giroux [FSG], 1991) ISBN 9780374249496 Already Dead: A California Gothic (HarperCollins, 1997) ISBN 9780060187378 The Name of the World (Harper, 2000) ISBN 9780060192488 Tree of Smoke (FSG, 2007) ISBN 9780330449205 Nobody Move (FSG, 2009) Train Dreams (FSG, 2011) – a novella first published in The Paris Review [2002] and in Europe [2004] The Laughing Monsters (FSG, 2014) ISBN 9780374280598
Short fiction
Short fiction
Jesus' Son (FSG, 1992) ISBN 9780374178925 The Largesse of the Sea Maiden (Penguin/Random House, 2018) ISBN 9780812988635
Poetry
Poetry
The Man Among the Seals: Poems (Stone Wall Press, 1969) ISBN 9780887486272 Inner Weather (Graywolf Press, 1976) The Incognito Lounge and Other Poems (Random House, 1982) ISBN 9780394523477 The Veil (Alfred A. Knopf, 1987) ISBN 9780394743431 The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly: Poems Collected and New (Harper Perennial, 1995) ISBN 9780060926960 "Last Night I Dreamed I Was in Mexico" (Ploughshares 36.4, 2010, p. 58) "The Trees Leaning into One Another, Green and Horrible" (Ploughshares 36.4, 2010, p. 59)
Plays
Plays
Hellhound on My Trail: A Drama in Three Parts (2000) Shoppers: Two Plays (Harper, 2002) ISBN 9780060934408- includes Hellhound on My Trail Psychos Never Dream, Campo Santo Theater, San Francisco (2004) Des Moines, San Francisco premiere in October 2007 Des Moines, New York premiere in November 2022 Soul of a Whore and Purvis: Two Plays in Verse (FSG, 2012) ISBN 9780374277963
Screenplays
Screenplays
The Prom (1990) (directed by Steven Shainberg) Hit Me (1996) (directed by Steven Shainberg, adapted from the novel A Swell-Looking Babe by Jim Thompson)
Nonfiction
Nonfiction
(contributor) One Man By Himself: Portraits of John Serl (Hard Press, 1995) ISBN 9789110224940 "The Civil War in Hell". Esquire. December 1, 1990. Retrieved July 22, 2017. "The Militia in Me". Esquire. July 1, 1995. Retrieved July 22, 2017. "Change your life FOREVER: God's Warriors in the Third Millennium". Salon. March 22, 1996. Archived from the original on August 24, 2000. Retrieved July 22, 2017. "School is out". Salon. October 1, 1996. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved July 8, 2017. "Hippies". Paris Review. June 1, 2000. Archived from the original on July 22, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017. "The small boys' unit". Harpers. October 1, 2000. Retrieved July 22, 2017. Seek: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond (essays) (HarperCollins, 2001) ISBN 9780060187361
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1949
Denis Johnson was born in 1949 at Munich.
2017
Denis Johnson died in 2017 at Sea Ranch.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Sea Ranch.
Residences
Munich.
Birth place
Awards and nominations
1981 – National Poetry Series award (selected by Mark Strand), for The Incognito Lounge 1983 – The Frost Place poet in residence 1986 – Guggenheim Fellowship 1986 – Whiting Award 1993 – Lannan Fellowship in Fiction 2002 – Aga Khan Prize for Fiction from The Paris Review, for Train Dreams 2007 – National Book Award, for Tree of Smoke 2008 – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, for Tree of Smoke 2012 – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, for Train Dreams 2017 – Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction (awarded posthumously)
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Sandomir, Richard. Denis Johnson, Who Wrote of the Failed and the Desperate, Dies at 67. The New York Times. May 26, 2017.
- 2.Carlson, Michael. Denis Johnson obituary. The Guardian. June 6, 2017.
- 3.Kean, Danuta. Tree of Smoke author Denis Johnson dies aged 67. The Guardian. May 26, 2017.
- 4.Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures University of Iowa Press - The University of Iowa. University of Iowa Press. 2026-01-02.
- 5.Garner, Dwight. A Writer Who Dazzled on the Page but Lived for the Margins. The New York Times. C3. December 4, 2025.
- 6.Jesse McKinley, "A Prodigal Son Turned Novelist Turns Playwright", The New York Times, June 16, 2002.
- 7.Chai, Barbara. Denis Johnson: The Gregarious Recluse. The Wall Street Journal. June 22, 2012.
- 8.David Amsden, "Denis Johnson's Second Stage", New York, 2010.
- 9.Denis Johnson: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center. norman.hrc.utexas.edu.
- 10.Moore, Michael Scott. Poet of the Fallen World. SF Weekly. February 19, 2003.
- 11.Armstrong, A.E. (2011) Denis Johnson: An inventory of his papers at the Harry Ransom Center, norman.hrc.utexas.edu. Available at: https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00572 (Accessed: 29 March 2025).
- 12.James, Caryn. Nameless Lovers Chased Through Hell. The New York Times Book Review. September 28, 1986.
- 13.Kroll, Justin. Joe Alwyn To Co-Star Opposite Margaret Qualley In A24's 'The Stars At Noon' From Claire Denis. Deadline Hollywood. November 3, 2021.
- 14.Jim Lewis, "The Revelator", New York Times, September 2, 2007.
- 15.Dwight Gardner, "Inside the List", New York Times, September 2, 2007.
- 16.Denis Johnson, author of 'Jesus' Son,' dead at 67. Washington Post.
- 17.Dwyer, Colin. Denis Johnson, Author Who Wrote Of The 'Painfully Beautiful,' Dies At 67. The Two-Way. NPR. May 26, 2017.
- 18.Williams, John (March 29, 2017) Modern Masterpiece Turns 25 – via NYTimes.com
- 19."Author Denis Johnson's Papers Acquired By Harry Ransom Center" , Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, July 7, 2010.
- 20.Michael Cunningham, "Letter From the Pulitzer Fiction Jury: What Really Happened This Year", The New Yorker, July 9, 2012.
- 21.Williams, Wyatt. Uncovering His Tracks. 32–35, 42. December 21, 2025. 0028-7822.
- 22.Harvey, Dennis. Review: 'Hellhound on my Trail'. PMC. September 5, 2000.
- 23.Berson, Misha. Novelist's play "Hellhound" thrives on whip-smart lingo. The Seattle Times Company. March 22, 2005.
- 24.Schmidt, Kate. Theater People: Denis Johnson's shaggy hellhound. Sun-Times Media, LLC. September 12, 2002.
- 25.Jillian Goodman, "No More Drama?", Slate, June 1, 2012.
- 26.Mark Hendricks, "Former Mitte Chair Johnson wins National Book Award" , txstate.edu, November 19, 2007.
- 27.Remembering Denis Johnson. The New Yorker. May 26, 2017.
- 28.Deborah Treisman, "This Week in Fiction: Denis Johnson," The New Yorker, February 24, 2014.
- 29.Joy Williams, "'The Laughing Monsters,' by Denis Johnson," New York Times, November 7, 2014.
- 30.Posthumously Published 'Sea Maiden' Affirms Denis Johnson's Eternal Voice. NPR. January 9, 2018.
- 31.PenguinRandomHouse.com. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson.
- 32.Denis Johnson, "School is Out", Salon, October 1, 1997.
- 33.Thier, Aaron. Denis Johnson's God. The Point. 17. Criticism. 2018.
- 34.Dille, Brian B. Books of Revelation: Christianity and Miracles in the Life and Work of Denis Johnson. Los Angeles Review of Books. December 21, 2017.
- 35.Carolyn Kellogg, "Award-winning author Denis Johnson dies at age 67," Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2017.
- 36.Academy of American Poets. Denis Johnson. poets.org. April 30, 2007.
- 37.Alan Williamson, "Three Poets", New York Times, October 10, 1982.
- 38."The Breath of Parted Lips: Voices from the Robert Frost Place, Volume 1", Publishers Weekly, May 1, 2001.
- 39.Stein, Ricky. Denis Johnson to read from his works at the Blanton Auditorium. The Daily Texan. October 24, 2012.
- 40.Denis Johnson – WHITING AWARDS. www.whiting.org.
- 41."Fiction Awards by Last Name," Lannan Foundation. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- 42."Past Winners: Aga Khan Prize," The Paris Review. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- 43.Thompson, Bob. Johnson's 'Tree of Smoke' Wins National Book Award. Washington Post. November 15, 2007.
- 44."National Book Awards – 2007". National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 27, 2012. With interview, acceptance speech by Johnson, and essay by Matthew Pitt from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.
- 45.Ben Sisario, "Arts, Briefly: Channeling Noir, Dickens-Style," New York Times, June 11, 2008.
- 46.Gavin, Jennifer. Prize for American Fiction to Be Awarded Posthumously to Denis Johnson. loc.gov. July 11, 2017.
- 47.Johnson, Denis. "Last Night I Dreamed I Was in Mexico". Ploughshares. 36. 4. 58. 2010.
- 48.Johnson, Denis. "The Trees Leaning into One Another, Green and Horrible". Ploughshares. 36. 4. 59. 2010.
- 49.Harvey, Dennis. Psychos Never Dream. Variety. March 7, 2004.
- 50.Hurwitt, Robert. Quirky 'Des Moines' kicks off experimental weekend-only series. Sfgate.com. October 22, 2007.
- 51.Des Moines. Theater for a New Audience. July 26, 2022.
- 52.Denis Johnson – Biography and Filmography. Hollywood.com Dead link. November 2019.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,960 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Denis FonvizinAuthor
- Denis GloverAuthor
- Denis HealeyAuthor
- Denis I of PortugalAuthor
- Denis KevansAuthor
- Denis le GrantAuthor
- Denis McQuailAuthor
- Denis OlegovAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Denis Johnson?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.