Diane Mavis Schoemperlen (born July 9, 1954) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer.^[1]

Early life and education

Schoemperlen was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and educated at Lakehead University.

Career

Schoemperlen's first novel, In the Language of Love, was published in 1994; it is composed of one hundred chapters, each one based on one of the one hundred words in the Standard Word Association Test, which was used to measure sanity. There are chapters titled "Table," "Slow," "Cabbage," and "Scissors." New York Times reviewer Jay Parini pronounced Schoemperlen "a novelist of real promise".^[2]

Schoemperlen's 1998 book of short stories, Forms of Devotion, won the Governor General's Award.^[3][4] In her second novel, Our Lady of the Lost and Found (2001), the narrator is visited by the Virgin Mary, and the two women spend one week cooking, cleaning, and shopping.

Schoemperlen's 2017 book, This is Not My Life, tells of her love for a prison inmate.^[3][5][6]