Jean Thompson

Jean Thompson (born January 3, 1950) is an American novelist, short story writer, and teacher of creative writing. She lives in Urbana, Illinois, where she has spent much of her career, and is a professor emerita at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, having also taught at San Francisco State University, Reed College, and Northwestern University. Early life, education, and career Jean Thompson was born in Chicago, Illinois, and during her childhood the family lived briefly in Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis, Tennessee. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and an MFA from Bowling Green State University. Her first stories were published in little magazines while she was still in her early twenties, and not long after that she began to be published in more visible venues, such as Ploughshares and The New Yorker. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories series, beginning with the 1979 edition. Literary themes and style Thompson "often writes about the difficulties and complexities of love," and her work "focuses on the lives of ordinary people, often women, living in the overlooked center" of the United States. Bibliography