Paulette Jiles
Paulette Kay Jiles (also known as Paulette K. Jiles, Paulette Jiles-Johnson; April 4, 1943 – July 8, 2025) was an American poet, memoirist and novelist.
Also recorded as Paulette Kay Jiles
Paulette Jiles
Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0
- Name
- Paulette Jiles
- Birth Name
- Paulette Kay Jiles
- Born
- 4 April 1943
- Birthplace
- Salem, Missouri, U.S.
- Died
- 8 July 2025
- Place of death
- San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
- Occupation
- * Poet
- Education
- University of Missouri–Kansas City
- Awards
- Governor General's Award (1984) Pat Lowther Award (1985) Gerald Lampert Award (1985)
- Spouse
- Jim Johnson (divorced)
- Nationality
- Canada · United States
- Fields
- literature · poetry · memoir literature
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wikidata · Q7154854 · wikipedia · Paulette Jiles
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Paulette Jiles • Birth Name — Paulette Kay Jiles • Born — 4 April 1943 • Birthplace — Salem, Missouri, U.S. • Died — 8 July 2025 • Place of death — San Antonio, Texas, U.S. • Occupation — * Poet • memoirist • novelist • Education — University of Missouri–Kansas City • Notable Works — News of the World (2016) • Awards — Governor General's Award (1984) Pat Lowther Award (1985) Gerald Lampert Award (1985) • Spouse — Jim Johnson (divorced)
Background
Background
Paulette Kay Jiles was born in 1943 in Salem, Missouri. She attended college at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, graduating in 1968 with a major in Romance Languages. Jiles moved to Toronto, Canada in 1969, where she worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and, subsequently, helped set up native-language FM radio stations with indigenous peoples in the far north of Ontario and Quebec for the next 10 years. In the process, she learned the Ojibwe language spoken by the Anishinaabeg peoples in Ontario and elsewhere. After marrying Jim Johnson, she moved with him to San Antonio in 1991. After several years of travel, including living in Mexico, the couple resettled in San Antonio in 1995, buying a house in the historical district. After her divorce in 2003, Jiles lived on a 36-acre (14.6 ha) ranch near Utopia, Texas, about 80 miles (128 km) west of San Antonio. In June 2025, Jiles announced that she had been diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. She died at a San Antonio hospital on July 8, 2025, at the age of 82.
Writing career
Writing career
Her 2016 novel News of the World was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.
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.
Salem.
Birth place
San Antonio.
Death place
Selected bibliography
• Waterloo Express (1973) • Celestial Navigation (1984, winner of the 1984 Governor General's Award for English Poetry, the Pat Lowther Award, and the Gerald Lampert Award) • The Golden Hawks (Where We Live) (1985) • Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma Kola (1986, nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize) • The Late Great Human Road Show (1986, nominated for the Books in Canada First Novel Award) • The Jesse James Poems (1988) • Blackwater (1988) • Song to the Rising Sun (1989) • Cousins (1992) • Flying Lesson: Selected Poems (1995) • North Spirit: Sojourns Among the Cree and Ojibway Nations and Their Star Maps (1995) • Enemy Women (2002, winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize) • Stormy Weather (2007) • The Color of Lightning (2009) • Lighthouse Island (2013) • News of the World (2016) • Simon the Fiddler (2020) • Chenneville: A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance (2023)
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Paulette Jiles, revision 1372409297 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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.UMKC Alumni Association. October 2016 Archives. UMKC Alumni.
- 2.Jiles, Paulette. Author's Page. amazon.com.
- 3.Salaman, Jeff. True Western. texasmonthly.com. Texas Monthly. September 15, 2016.
- 4.Cook-Monroe, Nancy. Former San Antonian Paulette Jiles Nominated for National Book Award. The Rivard Report. (therivardreport.com). October 4, 2016.
- 5.Smith, Harrison. Paulette Jiles, acclaimed author of 'News of the World,' dies at 82. The Washington Post. July 11, 2025.
- 6.Martin, Deborah. 'News of the World' author Paulette Jiles dies at 82. Houston Chronicle. July 9, 2025.
- 7.Nye, Naomi Shihab. Remembering My Friend Paulette Jiles. Texas Monthly. July 10, 2025.
- 8.The New Yorker. The 2016 National Book Awards Finalists. October 6, 2016.
- 9.Philosophical Society of Texas - Powered by AMO. www.pstx.org.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 18
- Waterloo Express (1973)
- Celestial Navigation (1984, winner of the 1984 Governor General's Award for English Poetry, the Pat Lowther Award, and the Gerald Lampert Award)
- The Golden Hawks (Where We Live) (1985)
- Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma Kola (1986, nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize)
- The Late Great Human Road Show (1986, nominated for the Books in Canada First Novel Award)
- The Jesse James Poems (1988)
- Blackwater (1988)
- Song to the Rising Sun (1989)
- Cousins (1992)
- Flying Lesson: Selected Poems (1995)
- North Spirit: Sojourns Among the Cree and Ojibway Nations and Their Star Maps (1995)
- Enemy Women (2002, winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize)
- Stormy Weather (2007)
- The Color of Lightning (2009)
- Lighthouse Island (2013)
- News of the World (2016)
- Philosophical Society of Texas - Powered by AMO. www.pstx.org.
- Chenneville: A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance (2023)
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
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 25 August 2026.
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