Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Readalikes
Born and brought up in Chicago (in the same suburb as Ernest Hemingway), Carol lived in Canada since 1957.
She died of cancer in July 2003. at the age of 68.
She is survived by her husband, Don, and their children John, Anne, Catherine, Meg and Sara.
The Stone Diaries was nominated for The Man Booker Prize Best Novel and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Best Novel. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction for Larry's Party. Unless was nominated for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, The Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction Best Novel.
Bibliography
Novels
Small Ceremonies (1976)
The Box Garden (1977)
Happenstance (1980)
A Fairly Conventional Woman (1982)
Mary Swann (1987) aka Swann
The Orange Fish (1989)
A Celibate Season (1991, with Blanche Howard)
The Republic of Love (1992)
The Stone Diaries (1993)
Larry's Party (1997)
Unless (2002)
Duet (2003)
Collections
Others (1972, poems)
Intersect (1974, poems)
Various Miracles (1985)
Coming to Canada (1992, poems)
Dressing up for the Carnival (2000)
Thirteen Hands and Other Plays (2002)
The Collected Stories (2004)
Plays
Departures & Arrivals (1988)
Fashion, Power, Guilt and the Charity of Families (1993, with Catherine Shields)
Thirteen Hands (1997)
Anniversary (1998, with Dave Williamson)
Non Fiction
Susanna Moodie: Voice and Vision (1977)
Jane Austen (2001)
A Memoir of Friendship: The Letters Between Carol Shields and Blanche Howard (2007)
The Staircase Letters (2007, with Elma Gerwin, Arthur Motyer)
Bibliography courtesy of Fantastic Fiction
Carol Shields's website
This bio was last updated on 10/21/2016. We try to keep BookBrowse's biographies both up to date and accurate, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's a tough task. So, please help us - if the information about this author is out of date or inaccurate, and you know of a more complete source, please let us know. Authors and publishers: If you wish to make changes to a bio, send the complete biography as you would like it displayed so that we can replace the old with the new.
Can you tell us how you became a writer?
I was a word-conscious child. My terrible early efforts -- by terrible, I
mean derivative and unreflective -- were encouraged by my teachers and parents.
I loved narrative; I knew that very early. And the act of writing was for me
probably the most spiritual experience in my life. It seemed only natural to
write the kind of books that I wanted to read.
What inspired you to write this particular book? Is there a story about
the writing of this novel that begs to be told?
I wanted to write a novel after writing a biography and I found the voice
of the novel in a short story I had previously published, "A Scarf,"
in Dressing Up for the Carnival. I wanted to write in the first person
after many years of writing in the third person. A friend, Winnipeg writer Jake
MacDonald, convinced me during one of our many long lunches that we novelists
would be able to show more "decent" people in fiction if we wrote in
the first person. His theory is that the third-person voice makes us nasty and
ironic and less in tune with the world. I think he's right. I chose the voice of
44 year-old Reta Winters, a wife and mother, a writer and translator, who has
suffered a grievous loss. ...
Tatiana de Rosnay was born on September 28th, 1961 in the suburbs of Paris. She is of English, French and Russian descent. Her father is French scientist Joël de Rosnay, her grandfather was painter Gaëtan ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Unless
Try:
A Secret Kept
by Tatiana de Rosnay
Louise Erdrich is the author of fifteen novels as well as volumes of poetry, children's books, short stories, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel The Round House won the National Book Award for Fiction. The Plague of ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Unless
Try:
The Master Butchers Singing Club
by Louise Erdrich
We recommend 9 similar authors
Become a Member and discover books that entertain, engage & enlighten.
The Dutch House is my introduction to Ann Patchett, which, after reading it, surprises me. I had ...
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie
by Marie Benedict
The real-life disappearance of Agatha Christie is perhaps her greatest mystery of all.
Reader Reviews
The Prophets
by Robert Jones Jr.
A stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation.
Reader Reviews
The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell
Introducing a detective duo for the ages who unlock the secrets of a startling Victorian mystery.
Visitors can view some of BookBrowse for free. Full access is for members only.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
