2013 Nobel Prize in Literature is Awarded to the Canadian Author Alice Munro. (October 11, 2013)

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2013 is awarded to the Canadian author Alice Munro for master of the contemporary short story.

The following material is provided by "Alice Munro - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 10 Oct 2013.

Biobibliographical notes

Alice Munro was born on the 10^th of July, 1931 in Wingham, which is in the Canadian province of Ontario. Her mother was a teacher, and her father was a fox farmer. After finishing high school, she began studying journalism and English at the University of Western Ontario, but broke off her studies when she got married in 1951. Together with her husband, she settled in Victoria, British Columbia, where the couple opened a bookstore. Munro started writing stories in her teens, but published her first book-length work in 1968, the story collection Dance of the Happy Shades, which received considerable attention in Canada. She had begun publishing in various magazines from the beginning of the 1950's. In 1971 she published a collection of stories entitled Lives of Girls and Women, which critics have described as a Bildungsroman.

Munro is primarily known for her short stories and has published many collections over the years. Her works include Who Do You Think You Are? (1978), The Moons of Jupiter (1982), Runaway (2004), The View from Castle Rock (2006) and Too Much Happiness (2009). The collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (2001) became the basis of the film Away from Her from 2006, directed by Sarah Polley. Her most recent collection is Dear Life (2012).

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.

Alice Munro currently resides in Clinton, near her childhood home in southwestern Ontario.

Major works

Dance of the Happy Shades and Other Stories. – Toronto : Ryerson, 1968

Lives of Girls and Women. – Toronto : McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1971

Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You : Thirteen Stories. – Toronto : McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1974

Who Do You Think You Are? : Stories. – Toronto : Macmillan of Canada, 1978. – Note: also published as The Beggar Maid : Stories of Flo and Rose. – New York : Knopf, 1979

The Moons of Jupiter : Stories. – Toronto : Macmillan of Canada, 1982

The Progress of Love. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1986

Friend of My Youth : Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1990

Open Secrets : Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1994

The Love of a Good Woman : Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1998

Queenie : A Story. – London : Profile Books/London Review of Books, 1999

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage : Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 2001

Runaway : Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 2004

The View from Castle Rock : Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 2006

Away from Her. – New York : Vintage, 2007. – Note: contains the short story “The Bear Came Over The Mountain” which was later made into the motion picture Away from her

Too Much Happiness : Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 2009

Dear Life : Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 2012

Collected short stories

Selected Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1996

No Love Lost. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 2003

Vintage Munro. – New York : Vintage, 2004

Carried Away : A Selection of Stories. – New York : Knopf, 2006

Alice Munro’s Best : Selected Stories. – Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 2008

New Selected Stories. – London : Chatto & Windus, 2011