Acclaimed author Daniel Woodrell, a West Plains, Missouri resident, has died at the age of 72. His ‘country noir’ novels (a genre he coined) included “Winter’s Bone” for which he was best known. The 2006 book later became an Oscar-nominated movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence.
Two more of Daniel’s novels were adapted as films: “Woe to Live On” (1987), which became “Ride With the Devil” (1999), directed by Ang Lee, and “Tomato Red” (1998), which in 2017 became a movie of the same title starring Julia Garner.
“Give Us a Kiss” (1996); “The Death of Sweet Mister” (2001); and “The Maid’s Version” (2013) were also penned by Daniel.
In 2011 the late Anthony Bourdain, an admirer of Daniel’s work, filmed an episode of his series “No Reservations” in West Plains in which Daniel was featured.
A full obituary, written by Alex Traub, appeared in the New York Times, Nov. 30, 2025. In it, Daniel’s wife, Katie Estill-Woodrell, said the cause of his death was pancreatic cancer.
According to the New York Times obituary: Daniel Stanford Woodrell was born on March 4, 1953, in Springfield, Mo. After a stint in the Marines beginning at the age of 17, he earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Kansas in his late 20s and then got a master’s degree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Daniel and Katie married in 1984 and moved around the West, South and Midwest until the mid-1990s, around the time “Give Us a Kiss” was published, when they settled in West Plains for good. In addition to his wife, Mr. Woodrell is survived by a brother, Ted.
Our condolences to his family and friends.
(Photo credit: Daniel Woodrell in 2007. Ulf Andersen/Getty Images.)