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 wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

and

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single 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 old ...

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 the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, 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 Sanity (from ) refers to the soundness, rationality, and health of the human mind, as opposed to insanity. A person is sane if they are rational. In modern society, the term has become exclusively synonymous with ''compos mentis'' ( and ). The ...

. 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 was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, 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."My lover the convict: The allure of incarcerated men"
''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 (winner) * 2017 Matt Cohen Award (winner)

References

External links

Diane Schoemperlen's
entry in

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

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 Novelists from Ontario