Diane Schoemperlen may understand Kingston in a different way than many: her recent book This is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications recounts her relationship with an inmate serving a life sentence for second degree murder. “What a brave examination of the entrapment of the heart!” says author Michael Winter. Shannon Maroney calls it “an honest, beautiful, painful, and important story”, saying that it “sheds light and understanding on the dark and segregated world of prisons and those doing time — inside and outside the walls.”

Diane has written twelve books of fiction and nonfiction, including Governor General’s Award-winning short story collection Forms of Devotion: Stories and Pictures, as well as The Man of My Dreams, which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and the Trillium Prize. She is a recipient of the Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life from the Writers’ Trust of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts’ Molson Prize in recognition of exceptional achievement in the arts. She has been a Writer in Residence at Queen’s University and St. Mary’s University in Halifax. Outside of her writing, Diane is also an artist, specializing in collages.

First Things First, her latest work, gathers 24 playful and profound early and uncollected stories into a collection The New York Times Book Review praises for its “inventive language and narrative structures.”

Born in Thunder Bay, Diane now calls Kingston home.

Appearing in: 9. Writing Outside the Box

Website: www.dianeschoemperlen.com