Carol Shields

This page is about the author. For the ophthalmologist specializing in ocular oncology, see Carol Shields (ophthalmologist).

Carol Shields
Born	June 2, 1935(1935-06-02) Oak Park, Illinois
Died	July 16, 2003(2003-07-16) (aged 68) Victoria, British Columbia
Occupation	Author
Nationality	Canada United States
Period	1972–2002

Carol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA (née Warner) (June 2, 1935 – July 16, 2003) was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.

Biography

Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois. She studied at Hanover College Indiana, where she became member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority; during this time she studied for a semester at the University of Exeter in England, and the University of Ottawa, where she received an MA.

In 1956, while on a college exchange visit to Scotland, she met a Canadian engineering student, Donald Hugh Shields. The couple married in 1957 and moved to Canada, where they had a son and four daughters. Shields later became a Canadian citizen.

In 1973, Shields became editorial assistant for the journal Canadian Slavonic Papers. In 1977, she became a professor at the University of Ottawa, where she stayed for a year. She later taught at the University of British Columbia and travelled around the country. In 1980, she and Don settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, after Don was hired to teach in the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Engineering. Winnipeg was where she wrote her major books. She also became a professor of English at the University of Manitoba. In 1996, she became chancellor of the University of Winnipeg. In 2000, after Don's retirement, the couple moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where she died in 2003 of breast cancer at age 68.

Shields' daughter Anne Giardini is also a writer. Giardini has contributed to the National Post as a columnist, and has published her first novel, The Sad Truth About Happiness. Anne's second novel, Advice for Italian Boys, was published in 2009.

Career

Shields was the author of several novels and short story collections, including The Orange Fish (1989), Swann (1987), Various Miracles (1985), Happenstance (1980), and The Republic of Love (1992). She was the recipient of a Canada Council Major Award, two National Magazine Awards, the 1990 Marian Engel Award, the Canadian Author's Award, and a CBC short story award. She was appointed as an officer of the Order of Canada in 1998 and was elevated to companion of the Order in 2002. Shields was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of Manitoba.

The Stone Diaries (1993) won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1993 Governor General's Award, the only book to have ever received both awards. It was nominated for the U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1993 Booker Prize, and was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. It was also chosen as a "Notable Book" by The New York Times Book Review, which wrote "The Stone Diaries reminds us again why literature matters."

She won the 1998 Orange Prize for Fiction for her 1997 novel Larry's Party. Her last novel, Unless (2002), was nominated for the 2002 Giller Prize, the Governor General's Award, the Booker Prize and the 2003 Orange Prize for Fiction. It was awarded the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.

Shields was also intensely interested in Jane Austen. She wrote the biography entitled Jane Austen, which won the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction in April 2002, an award accepted by her daughter Meg on her behalf in Toronto, Ontario, on April 22, 2002.

Her last novel, Unless, contains a passionate defense of female writers who write of 'domestic' subjects.

Following her death, six of her short stories were adapted by Shaftesbury Films into the dramatic anthology series The Shields Stories.

Honours and awards

• the Canadian Authors' Association Award for the Best Novel of 1976 (Small Ceremonies)
• the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Canadian Mystery (Swann: A Mystery)
• the Booker Prize Shortlist (The Stone Diaries)
• the Governor General's Award (The Stone Diaries)
• the National Book Critics Circle Award (The Stone Diaries)
• the Pulitzer Prize (The Stone Diaries)
• the Orange Prize (Larry's Party)
• the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction (Jane Austen)
• nominations for the Giller Prize (Larry's Party and Unless)

Bibliography

Novels

• Small Ceremonies, 1976
• The Box Garden, 1977 (Later published in a joint edition with Small Ceremonies as Duet)
• Happenstance, 1980
• A Fairly Conventional Woman, 1982
• Swann: A Mystery, 1987 (UK title: Mary Swann)
• A Celibate Season, 1991 (with Blanche Howard)
• The Republic of Love, 1992
• The Stone Diaries, 1993 (winner of the Governor General's Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize)
• Larry's Party, 1997 (winner of the Orange Prize, and the Prix de Livre)
• Unless, 2002 (winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, shortlisted for the 2003 Orange Prize)

Short stories

• Various Miracles, 1985
• The Orange Fish, 1989
• Dressing Up for the Carnival, 2000
• Collected Stories. Toronto: Random House, 2004.

Poetry

• Others. Ottawa: Borealis Press, 1972.
• Intersect. Ottawa: Borealis Press, 1974.
• Coming to Canada. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1992.

Plays

• Departures and Arrivals, 1990
• Thirteen Hands, 1993
• Fashion Power Guilt and the Charity of Families, 1995 (with Catherine Shields)
• Anniversary: A Comedy, 1998 (with Dave Williamson)
• Women Waiting
• 'Thirteen Hands and Other Plays. Toronto: Vintage, 2002.

Criticism

• Susanna Moodie: Voice and Vision, 1976

Biography

• Jane Austen. New York: Viking, 2001.

Anthologies

• Dropped Threads: What We aren't Told. Toronto: Vintage, 2001. (edited with Marjorie Anderson)
• Dropped Threads 2: More of What We aren't Told. Toronto: Vintage, 2003. (edited with Marjorie Anderson)

External links

• The Carol Shields Literary Trust
• "Carol Shields" in Canadian Writers: an examination of archival manuscripts, typescripts, correspondence, journals and notebooks at Library and Archives Canada
• Carol Shields's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
• CBC Obituary
• Guardian Obituary
• Observer Interview with Carol Shields
• Profile in the Manitoba Author Publication Index
• Carol Shields at Find a Grave
• The Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth