Diane Mavis Schoemperlen (born July 9, 1954) is a Canadian
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
and
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
writer.
Early life and education
Schoemperlen was born in
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, and educated at
Lakehead University
Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, gradua ...
.
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".
Schoemperlen's 1998 book of short stories, ''Forms of Devotion'', won the Governor General's Award.
["'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 In her second novel, ''Our Lady of the Lost and Found'' (2001), the narrator is visited by the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
, 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.
''McLeans'', Anne Kingston, April 22, 2016
Bibliography
* ''Double Exposures'', 1984 ()
* ''Frogs & Other Stories'', 1986 ()
* ''Hockey Night in Canada'', 1987 ()
* ''The Man of My Dreams'', 1990 ()
* ''Hockey Night in Canada & Other Stories'', 1991 ()
* ''In the Language of Love: A Novel in 100 Chapters'', 1994 ()
* ''Forms of Devotion'', 1998 ()
* ''Our Lady of the Lost and Found'', 2001 ()
* ''Red Plaid Shirt'', 2002 ()
* ''Names of the Dead : An Elegy for the Victims of September 11'', 2004 ()
* ''At a Loss for Words'', 2008 ()
* ''By the Book: Stories and Pictures'', 2014 ()
* ''This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications,'' 2016 ()
* ''First Things First'', 2016 ()
Awards and nominations
* 1990 Governor General's Award for English Fiction: ''The Man of My Dreams'' (nominee)
* 1994 Books in Canada First Novel Award: ''In the Language of Love'' (nominee)
* 1998 Governor General's Award for English Fiction: ''Forms of Devotion'' (winner)
* 2007 Marian Engel Award
Marian may refer to:
People
* Mari people, a Finno-Ugric ethnic group in Russia
* Marian (given name), a list of people with the given name
* Marian (surname), a list of people so named
Places
* Marian, Iran (disambiguation)
* Marian, Queensla ...
(winner)
* 2017 Matt Cohen Award 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 ...
(winner)
References
External links
Diane Schoemperlen's
entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage.
Available f ...
Dianne Schoemperlen at Random House
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoemperlen, Diane
1954 births
Living people
20th-century Canadian novelists
21st-century Canadian novelists
Writers from Thunder Bay
Canadian women novelists
Governor General's Award-winning fiction writers
Lakehead University alumni
Canadian women short story writers
20th-century Canadian women writers
21st-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Canadian short story writers
21st-century Canadian short story writers