35 Facts About Alice Munro

Alice Ann Munro was a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013.

Alice Munro's work tends to move forward and backward in time, with integrated short story cycles.

Alice Munro's stories explore human complexities in a simple but meticulous prose style.

Alice Munro received the Man Booker International Prize in 2009 for her life's work.

Alice Munro was a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for Fiction, and received the Writers' Trust of Canada's 1996 Marian Engel Award and the 2004 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for Runaway.

Alice Munro stopped writing around 2013 and died at her home in 2024.

Alice Munro's father, Robert Eric Laidlaw, was a fox and mink farmer, and later turned to turkey farming.

Alice Munro's mother, Anne Clarke Laidlaw, was a schoolteacher.

Alice Munro was of Irish and Scottish descent; her father was a descendant of Scottish poet James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd.

Alice Munro began writing as a teenager, publishing her first story, "The Dimensions of a Shadow", in 1950 while studying English and journalism at the University of Western Ontario on a two-year scholarship.

Alice Munro had four children with James Munro, and when the children were still young she would attempt to write whenever she could; her husband encouraged her by sending her into the book shop while he looked after the children and cooked.

Alice Munro found it difficult, even with her husband's help, to find the time among "the pile up of unavoidable household jobs" to write, and found it easier to concentrate on short stories, rather than the novels her publisher wanted her to write.

From 1979 to 1982, Alice Munro toured Australia, China and Scandinavia for public appearances and readings.

In 2013, Alice Munro was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, cited as a "master of the contemporary short story".

Alice Munro was the first Canadian and the 13th woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Alice Munro had a longtime association with editor and publisher Douglas Gibson.

When Gibson published his memoirs in 2011, Alice Munro wrote the introduction, and Gibson often made public appearances on Alice Munro's behalf when her health prevented her from appearing personally.

Almost 20 of Alice Munro's works have been made available for free on the web, in most cases only the first versions.

Many of Alice Munro's stories are set in Huron County, Ontario.

Alice Munro's stories explore human complexities in an uncomplicated prose style.

Some have asked whether Alice Munro actually writes short stories or novels.

The first PhD thesis on Alice Munro's work was published in 1972.

The first book-length volume collecting the papers presented at the University of Waterloo's first conference on her work, The Art of Alice Munro: Saying the Unsayable, was published in 1984.

Alice Munro published variant versions of her stories, sometimes within a short span of time.

Alice Munro's stories "Save the Reaper" and "Passion" came out in two different versions in the same year, in 1998 and 2004 respectively.

Alice Munro returned to Ontario to become writer in residence at the University of Western Ontario, and in 1976, received an honorary LLD from the institution.

In 2009, Alice Munro revealed that she had received treatment for cancer and for a heart condition requiring coronary artery bypass surgery.

Alice Munro died at her home in Port Hope, Ontario, on 13 May 2024, at age 92.

Alice Munro seems to have spent much of her career absorbed by the same questions that readers have asked since Andrea published her essay.

Alice Munro's work has been described as having revolutionized the short story, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time, and with integrated short story cycles, in which she displayed "inarguable virtuosity".

Alice Munro's stories have been said to "embed more than announce, reveal more than parade".

Alice Munro was seen as a pioneer in short story telling, with the Swedish Academy calling her a "master of the contemporary short story" who could "accommodate the entire epic complexity of the novel in just a few short pages".

Alice Munro's work is often compared with that of the most critically acclaimed short story writers.

Alice Munro's work has been considered a "national treasure" of Canada as it focuses largely on life in rural Canada from a woman's perspective.

Sherry Linkon, professor at Georgetown University, said that Alice Munro's works "helped remodel and revitalize the short-story form".