Jane Rule
by Todd Richmond
365Gay.com Features Editor

Born in New Jersey on March 28, 1931, Jane Rule was raised in the American Midwest and California.  In 1952 she graduated from Mills College and moved to Canada four years later, settling in British Columbia.  Rule taught intermittently at the University of British Columbia until 1976 when she moved to Galiano Island.

Jane Rule is celebrated internationally for her fiction and her non-fiction. Her career began in 1964 with the publication of her novel Desert of the Heart. One Toronto critic wrote, "But all the time you keep turning to the photograph of the author on the jacket and wondering how such a nice looking woman could ever have chosen do distasteful a subject."  And, that is why Jane Rule is so important.  Rule was one of the first out-writers to write openly about being a lesbian in major fiction.

But, it was her 1975 book "Lesbian Issues" that catapulted her onto the world stage. Rule attempts to set down what it means to be a dyke.  To do this, she beautifully measures her own attitudes toward sexuality against the images made by other women writers including Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, Radclyffe Hall, Vita Sackville-West and others.

In all Rule has authored twelve books all showing her to be a keen observer of social and emotional relationships, and she writes with warmth and candor.

Rule served on the executive of the Writers' Union of Canada. 

On the subject of British Columbia's natural spaces, she is both passionate and effective. B.C. Author Achievement Day, she was noted for having steadfastly and uniquely displayed exceptional and inspirational leadership, courage, and creativity in the literary arts since her arrival in Vancouver. She is mentor to many writers and artists.