Alice Munro Wins Nobel Prize For Literature

Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The 82-year-old author was called a “master of the contemporary short story” by the Swedish Academy.

Munro is known for setting her stories in ordinary places with average people. Still, the Canadian author has a way of captivating her readers.

Her editor and publisher Douglas Gibson said: “This is someone who’s not setting her stories in a dramatic place, a dramatic landscape… Suddenly you find yourself being fascinated by the life of this chambermaid, or this bean farmer, or this Vancouver housewife. Again, these are ordinary people, ordinary stories, but she has the magic.”

The Nobel Academy adds: “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.”

According to the AFP, short story writers are rarely honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature. Munro said that she hoped that her win would inspire more people to pick up short stories and inspire more writers to focus on the genre.

Munro said: “(I hope the award will) make people see the short story as an important art; not just something you played around with until you get a novel written.”

The author also said that she hoped the award would bring attention to other great writers in Canada.

Munro said: “I am amazed, and very grateful. I’m particularly glad that winning this award will please so many Canadians. I’m happy, too, that this will bring more attention to Canadian writing.”

Reuters reports that the Nobel Prize for Literature comes with a monetary prize of 8 million crowns (about $1.25 million).