Congratulations to the winner of the first
Carol Shields Prize for Fiction! We applaud Fatimah Asghar
for her book When We Were Sisters.
In fact we applaud all the short list, long
list, participants and judges in the difficult decision
of choosing from so many wonderful books.
For more information and to watch the 2023
award ceremony, click here.
2023-04/21 Announcing the 2023 Shortlist
The
Carol Shields Prize for Fiction has announced the shortlisted
writers for the 2023 Prize, one of whom will be awarded
the $150,000 USD grand prize, presented by BMO. See the
shortlist and read about the books here.
Watch the announcement of the winner on
May 4th. Click here
for details.
2023-03/08 Announcing the 2023 Longlist
The
Carol Shields Prize for Fiction’s inaugural longlist includes
15 writers from across Canada and the U.S., one of whom
will win the $150,000 USD grand prize, presented by BMO.
Details here.
2022-10/04 Carol Shields Inducted to the Chicago Literary Hall of
Fame
The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame inducts
Carol Shields, Ray Bradbury and Ethyl Payne in a ceremony
on November 3, 2022. To get free tickets to the induction
ceremony or to learn more, visit the Chicago
Literary Hall of Fame.
2022-05/31 Big news from The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction
The prize is now open for submissions and
a jury has been selected! The call for submissions kicked
off earlier this year, accepting works of fiction from women
and non-binary writers scheduled to be published in 2022.
The
full list of rules and regulations can be found here.
The longlist of 15 books will be announced
on March 8, 2023 (International Women’s Day), and the shortlist
of 5 books will be announced on April 6, 2023. The Prize
will be awarded for the first time on May 4, 2023.
For further information click on the links
below.
Click here
to visit the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction website for
further information.
Click here
to sign up to receive the newsletter.
Click here
to donate to the project.
2021-01/14 Melinda Gates Is Donating $250,000 to Fund The Carol
Shields Prize for Fiction
Click here
to visit the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction website for
further information.
Click here
to sign up to receive the newsletter.
Click here
to donate to the project.
2020-12/04 Reissue of The Stone Diaries in UK
World Editions will be reissuing The
Stone Diaries in the UK with a new cover December 2020.
Click here
to see their video of dates and covers about all their reissues
of Carol Shields novels.
2020-08/09 CBC rebroadcasts Writers & Company Interview with
Carol Shields
Eleanor Wachtel interviewed Carol about
Larry's Party on Writers and Company in 1997. This
interview was rebroadcast by CBC in August 2020, as
part of a series celebrating the 25th anniversary of the
U.K. Women's Prize for Fiction.
2020-05/26 A wonderful story that involves
Carol Shields
Lorna Crozier spoke at the the Springsong
2020 Virtual Gala to raise money for Pelee Island Heritage
Centre and the Pelee Island Bird Observatory on Saturday
May 9, 2020. We thank Lorna and Pelee Island Heritage for
giving us permission to use the talk on our website. Click
here
to see the talk and find the links for Lorna Crozier and
Pelee Island.
2020-04/06 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction
announces a newsletter
Despite this time of of great anxiety
and insecurity, we continue to work on this important prize.
This newsletter will provide everyone with updates on our
progress. In addition to news, this newsletter will also
profile a recent book release by a Canadian or US woman
author.
Click here
to visit the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction website for
further information.
Click here
to sign up to receive the newsletter.
Click here
to donate to the project.
2020-02/07 New Carol Shields prize for fiction
will award $150,000 to female author
2019-11/15 Unless on BBC list of 100 Novels
that Shaped Our World
From CBC Books, Posted Nov 08, 2019:
Margaret Atwood, L.M. Montgomery, Carol
Shields featured on BBC's list of 100 novels that shaped
the world
Margaret
Atwood (left — pictured with her Companion of Honour
on Oct. 25, 2019), Lucy Maud Montgomery (centre —
undated photo) and Carol Shields (right — pictured
with her Companion of the Order of Canada Award in
2002) are among the Canadians recognized on the BBC's
list of 100 influential books.
(Aaron Chown/Getty Images, Canadian Press, Richard
Lam/Canadian Press)
The BBC tasked a panel of six writers, curators and critics
with selecting 100 of the most influential English-language
novels published in the past 300 years.
After months of discussion, panellists Stig
Abell, Mariella Frostrup, Juno Dawson, Kit de Waal, Alexander
McCall Smith and Syima Aslam have released their list on
BBC Arts.
Divided into 10 categories such as "identity,"
"love sex & romance," "coming of age" and "rule breakers,"
the list covers a range of classic and contemporary literature,
including major fantasy and children's series.
Five Canadian books are on the list: Fugitive
Pieces by Anne Michaels, Unless by Carol Shields,
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery, Oryx and
Crake by Margaret Atwood and American War by
Omar El Akkad.
Carol Shield's Unless
Carol Shields's Unless
was published to critical acclaim in 2002. The novel follows
a well-to-do middle-aged writer named Reta Winters, whose
daughter disappears and turns up on a Toronto street corner
begging for money. The book was a finalist for the Giller
Prize and was featured on Canada Reads in 2011, when it
was defended by Lorne Cardinal.
Shields's work has been translated
into 33 languages. Her long list of literary honours includes
the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, which she won for The
Stone Diaries.
Born in Illinois, Shields moved
to Canada in 1957. Her first novel, Small Ceremonies,
was published at the age of 40. She died in 2003 at the
age of 68.
Unless is included under
the BBC's "politics, power & protest" category, alongside
The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Brave New
World by Aldous Huxley, Home Fire by Kamila
Shamsie, Lord of the Flies by William Golding,
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and V for
Vendetta by Alan Moore.
To read profiles of the other Canadian authors and novels
that were included on the BBC list, see the entire article
on CBC
Books.
2017-08/30 Carol's play to be produced in
Toronto this Fall!
Tickets
are now available.
October 20 to November 4, 2017
ALUMNAE THEATRE, TORONTO
Click
here for more information or to buy tickets.
2016-10/08 Startle and Illuminate
in Whistler
Anne Giardini and Nicholas Giardini appear
at the Whistler Writers Festival in The Lives of Writers:
Carol Shields, A Legacy, to present Startle and Illuminate,
a writing book on craft written in Carol's own words. It
takes place on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are
$15 and can be purchased at whistlerwritersfest.com.
The film version of Unless will have
its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival
2016.
The movie was directed by Alan Gilsenan.
The cast includes Catherine Keener, Matt Craven, Hannah
Gross, Chloe Rose, Abigail Winter, Martha Henry, Brendan
Coyle, Hanna Schygulla, Linda Kash and Benjamin Ayres.
We look forward to the movie being in full
release soon.
2016-05-17 The Next Chapter with Shelagh
Rogers Interview
Anne Giardini and Nick Giardini will discuss
Startle and Illuminate with host Shelagh Rogers
CBC Radio One and Serius XM
Saturday, June 4th
sometime between 4:30 and 5:00 pm (the show starts at 4
pm - always worth listening to!)
or listen to the interview online (as of June 4th) at cbc.ca/thenextchapter
There are still Startle and Illuminate
launch events happening. Check below for dates and venues.
2016-03-01 Two new books to be released
in April
Startle
and Illuminate: Carol Shields on Writing
Release April 26, 2016, Random House
Canada.
Order from Amazon.ca.
In the course of her extraordinary
career, which included the novels The Stone Diaries,
Larry's Party, The Republic of Love and
Unless, as well as poetry, short stories, biography
and plays, Carol Shields was unfailingly encouraging of
other writers. She read and commented on her friends' manuscripts.
She taught writing classes and she spoke and wrote on the
craft of writing. Her own discipline rarely faltered. Her
daily practice was to write a new page, then edit the page
written the day before, then repeat, until, after a year
or so, her book was finished. Now in her own words, as clear
and straightforward as a glass of water, comes Startle
and Illuminate, the best possible guide to the writing
process, from conception to publication. This essential
work, drawn by her daughter Anne Giardini and grandson Nicholas
Giardini from her voluminous correspondence with other writers,
essays, notes, comments, criticism and lectures, is a last
gift from one of our finest novelists meant for both aspiring
and established writers. It helps answer some of the most
fundamental questions about writing: such as, why we write
at all, whether writing can be taught, what keeps a reader
turning the pages, and how a writer knows when a work is
done.
For Shields's devoted readers, Startle
and Illuminate reveals her own thoughts on why we read—to
be the other, to touch and taste the experience of the other;
and why we write—for the joy of the making, to reimagine
our world, to discover patterns and uncover forms that echo
our realities as well as interrogate them, to imagine alternate
worlds. It is a beautiful legacy.
LAUNCH EVENTS for Startle
and Illuminate
INCITE event with the Vancouver
International Writers Festival (VIWF) Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Vancouver Public Library, Central Library
- Alice MacKay Room 350 West Georgia Street Vancouver
B.C.
Phone (VIFW): 604-681-6330 Phone (Library): 604-331-3603
Details: Free admission
Website: http://writersfest.bc.ca
A Different Drummer Books Brunch
Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Time: 9:30 am
Location: Burlington Golf & Country Club 422 North
Shore Blvd. East. Burlington ON
Phone (Different Drummer): 905-639-0925
Details: Part of Book & Author Series - sold as three
part session
Website: http://www.differentdrummerbooks.ca
Event with the Toronto Reference
Library
Date: Thursday, May 19, 2016
Time: 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: Toronto Reference Library Atrium, 789 Yonge
Street, Toronto
Phone: 416-395-5577
Details: Book signing to follow
Website: http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca
Event with the Runnymede Public
Library
Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Time: TBA
Location: 2178 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Phone: 416-393-7697
Details: TBA
Website: http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca
Event with KAMA Reading Series
Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Time: Begins at 6:00 pm
Location: Gardiner Museum 111 Queen's Park Toronto
Phone: 416-977-0008
Details: Single tickets available for $65, series
pass is $295
Website: http://www.worldlit.ca
Event
with McNally Robinson
Date: Friday, May 27, 2016
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Grant Park in the Atrium, Winnipeg
Phone: 1-800-561-1833
Details: Co-presented by the Winnipeg International
Writers Festival as part of our collaborative Spring
Literary Series.
Website: http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com
Susanna
Moodie: Roughing It in the Bush
Release April 12, 2016
From the late Carol Shields and Patrick
Crowe from Xenophile Media, a new graphic novel illuminating
Canadian pioneer history and the life of one of Canada's
earliest female writers.
Tickets
are now available.
Susanna
Moodie: Roughing It in the Bush