“The title phrase captures nicely Rule's blend of honesty and cool analytical power with moral and artistic passion.” - The Women's Review of Books (1993)

Jane Rule
Jane Rule was born in New Jersey in 1931 and came to Canada in 1956, where she later taught at the University of British Columbia. Her first novel, Desert of the Heart (1964), in which two women fall in love in 1950s Reno, Nevada, was successful as a 1985 feature film called Desert Hearts.

Rule emerged as one of the most respected writers in Canada with her many novels, essays and collections of short stories, including Theme for Diverse Instruments (1975). She received the Canadian Authors Association best novel and best short story awards, the American Gay Academic Literature Award, the U.S. Fund for Human Dignity Award of Merit, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind's Talking Book of the Year Award and an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of British Columbia.

In 1996, Rule received the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award for an Outstanding Literary Career in British Columbia. Rule passed away in 2007.

Linda M. Morra
Linda Morra holds a PhD in Canadian literature from the University of Ottawa. She teaches at Bishop's University and lives in Montreal. Morra is currently working on a monograph in which she explores Canadian women writers' self-agency and textual integrity in relation to the publishing industry in Canada.

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