Daniel Woodrell is an American novelist and short-story writer. He is noted for writing a style of crime fiction known as “country noir,” a term Woodrell himself coined.
Born in Springfield, Missouri, Woodrell spent time as a child in the Missouri Ozarks. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Woodrell has set much of his fiction in the highland region where he grew up.
Three of Woodrell’s nine novels have been turned into films, most notably Winter’s Bone which writer and director Debra Granik adapted into a 2010 release of the same name. The movie was a critical success, being nominated for four Academy Awards and receiving the Grand Jury prize from the Sundance Film Festival.