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Retiring Canadian author Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Retiring Canadian author Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Celebrated Canadian short-story writer Alice Munro, who announced her retirement earlier this year, has won the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Canadian-based to earn the honour.

Munro, 82, is the 13th woman to win the prize. She told the Globe and Mail recently that she intended on retiring after the publication of "Dark Life," her 14th story collection. She won a Trillium Book Award for the piece in June.

Lucky 13! Alice Munro is the 13th woman to receive the #NobelPrize in #Literature & the 110th Nobel Laureate in Literature.

— Nobelprize_org (@Nobelprize_org) October 10, 2013

During her extensive career, Munro has been a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize and has won the Man Booker International Prize, two Scotiabank Giller Prizes, three Governor General's Literary Awards and the American National Book Critics Circle Award, to name a few.

Munro told the Canadian Press that it was "quite wonderful" to receive the award. "I knew I was in the running, yes, but I never thought I would win," she told the news agency. Typical Canadian humility.

Munro was born in 1931 in Wingham, Ontl., to a mother who was a teacher and a father who was a fox farmer. She studied journalism briefly, before getting married and moving to Victoria, where she and her husband opened a book store.

She began writing in her teens and published her first book in 1968. Dance of the Happy Shades, a collection of short stories, garnered praise in Canada. Here extensive bibliography includes:

  • Who Do You Think You Are? (1978)

  • The Moons of Jupiter (1982)

  • Runaway (2004)

  • Too Much Happiness (2009)

The Nobel committee writes:

Munro is acclaimed for her finely tuned storytelling, which is characterized by clarity and psychological realism. Some critics consider her a Canadian Chekhov. Her stories are often set in small town environments, where the struggle for a socially acceptable existence often results in strained relationships and moral conflicts – problems that stem from generational differences and colliding life ambitions. Her texts often feature depictions of everyday but decisive events, epiphanies of a kind, that illuminate the surrounding story and let existential questions appear in a flash of lightning.

Her victory is already earning praise inside and outside of Canada.