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    Short story writer Alice Munro wins the 2013 Nobel Prize in literature

    Short story writer Alice Munro wins the 2013 Nobel Prize in literature

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    Alice Munro (Random House press image)
    Alice Munro (Random House press image)

    The Swedish Academy announced in Stockholm, Sweden this morning that Canadian writer Alice Munro has won the 2013 Nobel Prize in literature, calling her the "master of the contemporary short story." Munro, who is 82 years old, is the 13th woman to win the prize, which has been awarded since 1901.

    Munro, who was born in Ontario in 1931 and lives there today, focuses much of her fiction on her native environs, and in a statement to the New York Times through her publisher, Random House, Munro said, "I’m particularly glad that winning this award will please so many Canadians." She continued, “I’m happy, too, that this will bring more attention to Canadian writing.”

    Munro's work, primarily short fiction, has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review. She was previously awarded the 2009 Man Booker Prize for her body of work and is a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction in 1968, 1978, and 1986.