Denis Hale Johnson (July 1, 1949 – May 24, 2017) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet, best known for his debut short story collection, Jesus' Son (1992), and his novel, Tree of Smoke (2007), which won the National Book Award for Fiction. Johnson was twice shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Over his career, he authored nine novels, one novella, two books of short stories, three collections of poetry, two collections of plays, and one book of reportage. His final work, a book of short stories titled The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, was published posthumously in 2018.

Poet, playwright, and author Denis Johnson was born in Munich, West Germany, and was raised in Tokyo, Manila, and Washington. He earned a master's degree from the University of Iowa and received numerous awards for his work, including a Lannan Fellowship in Fiction (1993), a Whiting Writer's Award (1986), the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction from the Paris Review for Train Dreams, and the National Book Award for Fiction (2007).