30 Years Ago, Carol Shields Won the Pulitzer for The Stone Diaries

30 years ago, on April 19, 1995, Carol Shields won the Pulitzer Prize for The Stone Diaries.

The novel is a fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett as she navigates 20th-century womanhood in the United States and Canada.

Over the course of a lifetime, Daisy reflects on marriage, motherhood, loss, and identity. The novel explores how memory, perception, and narrative shape our understanding of self.

Through Daisy’s fragmented journey, Shields crafts a poignant meditation that offers enduring insights into the nature of life-and fiction.

The Stone Diaries also won the Governor General’s Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Three decades later, the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, created to recognize and uplift the best works in fiction by women and non-binary writers in the United States and Canada, is proud to continue her legacy.