First Canadian to win the Nobel for Literature

Alice Munro, the veteran Canadian author, won the Nobel literature prize on Thursday. She won it for the short stories she has written on the vulnerability of human relations.

The Nobel jury termed Ms Munro as the "master of the contemporary short story." She has been honoured for her style of storytelling, which is "finely tuned." Her short stories are also characterised by psychological realism and clarity, it said.

Interestingly, only 12 women won the Nobel for literature before Ms Munro who becomes the lucky 13 in the list. It has been 112 years since the prize was awarded for the first time in 1901. On the other hand, Ms Munro becomes the first Canadian to win the honour. She is going to receive $1.32 million as the prize money at an award ceremony to be held on Dec 10 in Stockholm, Sweden. Mo Yan, the Chinese author, won it in the previous year.

Ms Munro, 82, exemplifies a sedate style of narrating a story. Her mother was a teacher, while her father was engaged in fox farming. They used to live Wingham which is situated on the western part of Toronto. She had the chance to study at the University of Ontario and later majored in journalism. The Dimensions of a Shadow, her first story was published during this time in 1950.

She married one of her classmates and, after a few years of being a tedious housewife, she ran away with another man whom she married later on. The second marriage, too, did not work favourably and fell apart soon. However, she started writing by this time and published the first collection of short stories called Dance of the Happy Shades which brought the Governor's Prize for her in 1968.

David Homel, the literary critic of the U.S., has said that Ms Munro is not a socialite. She is hardly seen in public. She does not go on tours for promoting her books either. Ms Munro is often the alter ego of Margaret Atwood, another woman who made legendary contribution to the literature of Canada.

Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, has said that a single short story of Alice Munro covers decades.

Video courtesy: YouTube/Nobel Prize