Diane Schoemperlen

Last updated

Diane Mavis Schoemperlen (born July 9, 1954) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Schoemperlen was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and educated at Lakehead University.

Career

Schoemperlen's first novel, In the Language of Love, was published in 1994; it is composed of one hundred chapters, each one based on one of the one hundred words in the Standard Word Association Test, which was used to measure sanity. There are chapters titled "Table," "Slow," "Cabbage," and "Scissors." New York Times reviewer Jay Parini pronounced Schoemperlen "a novelist of real promise". [2]

Schoemperlen's 1998 book of short stories, Forms of Devotion, won the Governor General's Award. [3] [4] In her second novel, Our Lady of the Lost and Found (2001), the narrator is visited by the Virgin Mary, and the two women spend one week cooking, cleaning, and shopping.

Schoemperlen's 2017 book, This is Not My Life, tells of her love for a prison inmate. [3] [5] [6]

Bibliography

Awards and nominations

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Urquhart</span> Canadian novelist and poet

Jane Urquhart, LL.D is a Canadian novelist and poet. She is the internationally acclaimed author of seven award-winning novels, three books of poetry and numerous short stories. As a novelist, Urquhart is well known for her evocative style which blends history with the present day. Her first novel, The Whirlpool, gained her international recognition when she became the first Canadian to win France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger. Her subsequent novels were even more successful. Away, published in 1993, won the Trillium Award and was a national bestseller. In 1997, her fourth novel, The Underpainter, won the Governor General's Literary Award.

Milton James Rhode Acorn, nicknamed The People's Poet by his peers, was a Canadian poet, writer, and playwright.

Bonnie Burnard was a Canadian short story writer and novelist, best known for her 1999 novel, A Good House, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

The Matt Cohen Award is an award given annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to a Canadian writer, in honour of a distinguished lifetime contribution to Canadian literature. First presented in 2000, it was established in memory of Matt Cohen, a Canadian writer who died in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Maillard</span> Canadian writer

Keith Maillard is a Canadian-American novelist, poet, and professor of creative writing at the University of British Columbia. He moved to Canada in 1970 and became a Canadian citizen in 1976.

Rachel Manley is a Jamaican writer in verse and prose, born in Cornwall, England, raised in Jamaica and currently residing in Canada. She is a daughter of the former Jamaican prime minister, Michael Manley. She was briefly married to George Albert Harley de Vere Drummond, father of the film director Matthew Vaughn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie-Louise Gay</span> Canadian illustrator and childrens writer (born 1952)

Marie-Louise Gay is a Canadian children's writer and illustrator. She has received numerous awards for her written and illustrated works in both French and English, including the 2005 Vicky Metcalf Award, multiple Governor General's Awards, and multiple Janet Savage Blachford Prizes, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Ellis</span> Canadian fiction writer and activist

Deborah Ellis is a Canadian fiction writer and activist. Her themes are often concerned with the sufferings of persecuted children in the Third World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Chariandy</span> Canadian writer (born 1969)

David John Chariandy is a Canadian writer and academic, presently working as a professor of English literature at Simon Fraser University. His 2017 novel Brother won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and Toronto Book Award.

The Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award is a Canadian literary award, presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an established Canadian author to honour their body of work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amber Dawn</span> Canadian writer

Amber Dawn is a Canadian writer, who won the 2012 Dayne Ogilvie Prize, presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an emerging lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender writer.

<i>Half-Blood Blues</i> 2001 novel by Esi Edugyan

Half-Blood Blues is a fiction novel by Canadian writer Esi Edugyan, and first published in June 2011 by Serpent’s Tail. The book's dual narrative centers around Sidney "Sid" Griffiths, a journeyman jazz bassist. Griffiths' friend and bandmate, Hieronymus "Hiero" Falk, is caught on the wrong side of 1939 Nazi ideology and is essentially lost to history. Some of his music survives, however, and half a century later, fans of Falk discover his forgotten story.

Julie Johnston is a Canadian writer. She was raised in Smiths Falls, Ontario, in the Ottawa Valley. She studied at the University of Toronto. She now lives in Peterborough, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Auxier</span> Canadian writer

Jonathan Auxier is a Canadian-born writer of young adult literature.

<i>The Age of Longing</i> 1995 novel by Richard B. Wright

The Age of Longing is a 1995 novel by Canadian author Richard B. Wright and published by HarperCollins. The novel was nominated for the 1995 Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General's Award in the English-language fiction category.

<i>The Marrow Thieves</i> 2017 novel by Cherie Dimaline

The Marrow Thieves is a young adult novel by Métis Canadian writer Cherie Dimaline, published on September 1, 2017 by Cormorant Books through its Dancing Cat Books imprint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waubgeshig Rice</span> Canadian Anishinaabe writer and journalist

Waubgeshig Isaac Rice is an Anishinaabe writer and journalist from the Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound, Ontario, in Canada. Rice has been recognized for his work throughout Canada, including an appearance at Wordfest's 2018 Indigenous Voices Showcase in Calgary.

<i>Split Tooth</i> 2018 novel by Canadian musician Tanya Tagaq

Split Tooth is a 2018 novel by Canadian musician Tanya Tagaq. Based in part on her own personal journals, the book tells the story of a young Inuk woman growing up in the Canadian Arctic in the 1970s.

<i>Life on the Ground Floor</i> Doctors autobiography set in Toronto and Addis Ababa

Life on the Ground Floor: Letters from the Edge of Emergency Medicine is an autobiographical book by Canadian doctor James Maskalyk about his work and reflections on working in emergency departments in St Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada, and Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as well as work in Cambodia and Bolivia.

<i>From the Ashes</i> (memoir) 2019 memoir by Jesse Thistle

From the Ashes is a 2019 memoir by Métis-Cree academic and writer Jesse Thistle.

References

  1. "'By the Book,' by Diane Schoemperlen". The New York Times, Dec 5, 2014. Mark Sarvas
  2. "Pieces of a Life", New York Times, Feb 25, 1996, by Jay Parini
  3. 1 2 "'I loved the wrong person': Diane Schoemperlen on how she fell in love with a prison inmate". The Globe and Mail, Sarah Hampson, March 24, 2017
  4. "Our Lady of the Lost and Found". Quill and Quire, March 2001 issue
  5. "Review: This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications". Quill and Quire, June 2016 issue
  6. "My lover the convict: The allure of incarcerated men". McLeans, Anne Kingston, April 22, 2016