Carol Shields Profile

For the first 30 years of her life, Carol Shields did exactly what was expected of her. She married immediately after college and settled into a predictable existence as a housewife and mother in Ottawa, Canada. It was only after her five children had all started school that she began to set aside a part of each day for writing.

Then something unexpected happened. What began as a private hobby became a very public literary career, and the obscure Canadian housewife became an internationally acclaimed author.

Her first novel did not appear until she was 40, but her work struck a chord with readers, first in Canada, and then around the world. Her masterpiece, The Stone Diaries, received the top literary honors in both her native country, the United States, and her adopted one, Canada. In her novels, plays, poems and stories, Carol Shields displayed a unique gift for finding transcendent beauty and meaning in the minute details of everyday life. With gentle humor and a generous spirit, she proved, again and again, that there are no insignificant lives, and that there is more to all of us than meets the eye.