Born 200 miles north of Thunder Bay, Ontario in Little Longlac, Greenstone, Jane Urquhart is the third of three children and the only daughter of Marian (born Quinn) and Walter (Nick) Carter, a prospector and mining engineer. Urquhart spent her later childhood and adolescence in Toronto, where she was educated at Havergal College, a private school for girls. She received her first B.A in English literature (1971) from the University of Guelph.

While there, she met visual artist Paul Keele, and they were married in 1968. Keele was killed in a car accident in 1973; Jane then returned to the University of Guelph to study art history, obtaining her second B.A. in 1976. The same year, she married Canadian visual artist Tony Urquhart. The Urquharts have one daughter, Emily, born in 1977.

She is the author of six internationally acclaimed novels entitled, The Whirlpool, Changing Heaven, Away, The Underpainter, The Stone Carvers and A Map of Glass.

The Whirlpool received the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Award). Away, was winner of the Trillium Award and a finalist for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The Underpainter, won the Governor General’s Award and was a finalist for the Rogers Communications Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. The Stone Carvers, was a finalist for The Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award, and longlisted for the Booker Prize. A Map of Glass, was a finalist for a regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book.

She is also the author of a collection of short fiction, Storm Glass, and four books of poetry, I Am Walking in the Garden of His Imaginary Palace, False Shuffles, The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan, and Some Other Garden. Her work has been translated into numerous foreign languages.

Urquhart has received the Marian Engel Award, Calgary's Bob Edwards Award and the Harboufront Festival Prize, and is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.In 2005 she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Recently, she was named the 2007 Banff Distinguished Writer.

Urquhart has received numerous honorary doctorates from Canadian universities and has been writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa and at Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of Toronto, and the University of Guelph. She has also given readings and lectures in Canada, Britain, Europe, the U.S.A., and Australia.

In 2007 she edited and published “The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories,” and in 2009 she published a biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery as part of Penguin’s “Extraordinary Canadians” series.

Jane Urquhart lives in Northumberland County Ontario, Canada, and occasionally in Ireland.

Urquhart's books have been published in many countries, including the Netherlands, France, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, Australia, and the United States, and have been translated into several languages.

Novels

• The Whirlpool (1986)
• Changing Heaven (1990)
• Away (1993)
• The Underpainter (1997)
• The Stone Carvers (2001)
• A Map of Glass (2005)
• Sanctuary Line (2010)

Short fiction

• Storm Glass (1987)

Poetry

• I'm Walking in the Garden of His Imaginary Palace
• False Shuffles
• The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan

In 1992, her novel The Whirlpool was the first Canadian book to win France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur livre etranger (Best Foreign Book Award). Her third novel, Away, remained on The Globe and Mails national bestseller list for 132 weeks (the longest of any Canadian book), and won the 1994 Trillium Book Award.

In 1994 Urquhart received the Marian Engel Award, presented to female Canadian novelists in mid-career for her entire body of work. In 1996 she was named to France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres as a chevalier, and Away was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the world's largest literary prize for a single work of fiction. In 1997 Urquhart was asked to serve on the jury for this award.

In the fall of 1997, her fourth novel, The Underpainter, was published to wide critical acclaim, winning the 1997 Governor General's Award for English Fiction, and becoming a fixture on the national bestseller lists.

In 2001 she published The Stone Carvers, a highly acclaimed international bestseller that was a finalist for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

In 2005, Urquhart was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.