Did Annie Proulx write “Brokeback Mountain”?

Yes, American author Annie Proulx wrote “Brokeback Mountain,” a short story that she published in The New Yorker in 1997. Perhaps her best-known work, it portrays a tragic love affair between two ranch hands in Wyoming, highlighting the impact of a homophobic culture on their secret relationship.

In 2005 the story was adapted into a film directed by Ang Lee, with a script by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana and actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in the lead roles. The film won several Academy Awards, including for best director and best adapted screenplay.

Proulx later voiced some regret about “Brokeback Mountain,” because she kept receiving suggestions from readers who “have decided that the story should have had a happy ending.” In 2009 she told The Paris Review, “So many people have completely misunderstood the story. I think it’s important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience, but unfortunately the audience that Brokeback reached most strongly have powerful fantasy lives.”