Paulette Jiles

Born in Salem, Missouri, Paulette Jiles grew up in the American Midwest and studied Romance languages at the University of Missouri. After graduating, she moved to Canada and worked as a journalist for eight years before making her first foray into poetry. Jiles first gained literary acclaim with her poetry collection Celestial Navigation, which won Canada’s most prestigious literary prize in 1984. Jiles went on to publish works across a variety of genres, from memoir to fiction, mostly set in the Midwest. Her novel Enemy Women (2002) won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and News of the World (2016) was a finalist for the National Book Award. After getting married, Jiles moved to Texas where she has lived intermittently since 1991. She currently lives outside a ranch outside San Antonio, and has several grandchildren.