Carol Shields(1935-2003)
- Writer
Carol Shields studied at Hanover College, the University of Exeter in
England, and the University of Ottawa, where she received an M.A. In
1957 she married Donald Hugh Shields, a professor of Civil Engineering,
and moved to Canada. Carol Shields lived in Canada until her death in
Victoria, BC, in July 2003. In addition to raising five children, all
of whom are now grown, Shields has worked as an editorial assistant for
the journal Canadian Slavonic Papers and as a professor at the
University of Ottawa, the University of British Columbia, and the
University of Manitoba, where she has taught for eighteen years. In
1996, Carol Shields was appointed Chancellor of the University of
Winnipeg. Shields is the author of several novels, plays, and
short-story collections, including The Orange Fish, Swann, Various
Miracles, Happenstance, Thirteen Hands, and The Republic of Love. Her
books have won a Canada Council Major Award, a National Magazine Award,
the Canadian Author's Award, and a CBC short story award. The Stone
Diaries won the National Book Critics Circle Award, 1994, the Pulitzer
Prize, 1995, and Canada's Governor General Award, 1993. It was also
named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly and a
Notable Book by The New York Times Book Review. Carol Shields' Larry's
Party won the Orange Prize in 1998. Shields' biography of Jane Austen
received the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction in 2002. A
labyrinth was built in Winnipeg in Carol Shields' honor.
