Daniel Woodrell (born March 4, 1953) is an American novelist and short story writer, who has written nine novels, most of them set in the MissouriOzarks, and one collection of short stories. Woodrell coined the phrase "country noir" to describe his 1996 novel Give Us a Kiss.[1] Reviewers have frequently since used the term to categorize his writing.[2]
Early life and education
Woodrell was born in Springfield, Missouri,[3] in the southwestern corner of the state. He grew up in Missouri and dropped out of high school to join the Marines. Later he earned a BA from the University of Kansas and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.[1]
The University of Missouri Kansas City awarded an honorary doctorate to Daniel Woodrell on December 17, 2016.
Woodrell has set most of his novels in the Missouri Ozarks, a landscape he knew from childhood. He has created novels based on crime, a style he termed "country noir", a phrase adopted by commentators on his work. However, William Boyle, an avowed fan and fellow author of literary crime fiction, put Woodrell's work in broader context: "this Woodrell guy’s got double of everything. Language, plot, dialogue, sense of place, energy, tension...He’s interested in the whole of humanity through the lens of his place."[5]
In addition to finding readers for his fiction, Woodrell has had three novels adapted for films.
Woodrell's second novel, Woe to Live On (1987), was adapted for the 1999 film Ride with the Devil, directed by Ang Lee.
Winter's Bone (2006) was adapted by writer and director Debra Granik for a film of the same title, and released commercially in June 2010 after winning two awards at the Sundance Film Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize for a dramatic film.[6][7] Several critics called it one of the best films of the year and an American classic, and it received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.[8]
2008 - His short story "Uncle", originally published in A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir (2007), was nominated for a 2008 Edgar Award.[13]
2010 Sundance Film Festival award for top dramatic film for adaptation of his novel Winter's Bone (published in 2006)
Bibliography
Under the Bright Lights (Henry Holt, 1986)
Woe to Live On (Henry Holt, 1987)
Muscle for the Wing (Henry Holt, 1988)
The Ones You Do (Henry Holt, 1992)
Give Us a Kiss: A Country Noir (Henry Holt, 1996)
Tomato Red (Henry Holt, 1998)
The Death of Sweet Mister (Putnam, 2001)
Winter's Bone (Little, Brown, 2006)
The Bayou Trilogy (Mulholland Books, 2011) (an omnibus volume collecting Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do)
^Becky Ohlsen (n.d.). "Review: The Death of Sweet Mister". Bookreporter.com. Retrieved 2007-03-30. (For one example of "country noir" used in a later review.)