"Master of the contemporary short story," Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize in Literature

The Canadian author Alice Munro has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Described by the jury as a "master of the contemporary short story", Munro, 82, has published numerous collections over a 45-year career.

Born in Wingham, Ontario in 1931, her mother was a teacher, and a father 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 1950s. 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).

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