ALICE MUNRO
Canadian short story writer Alice Munro was the winner of the ‘Man Booker International Prize’ in 2009. This award is one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards and this is awarded once every two years to a living author for his or her lifetime achievement.The previous winners of the Booker international prize were ‘Albania’s Ismail Kadare’ and ‘Nigerian Chinua Achebe’. Munro gained this award by beating many famous people including Peter Carey in Australia, Evan S. Connell in US, Mahasweta Devi in India,E L Doctorow in US, James Kelman in Britain, Mario Vargas Llosa in Peru, Arnot Lustig in Czech Republic, V S Naipaul in Trinidad/India, Joyce Carol Oates in US, Antonio Tabucchi in Italy, Ngugi Wa Thiong’O in Kenya, Dubravka Ugresic in Croatia, and Ludmila Ulitskaya in Russia.The 78-year-old Munro will receive a prize money of £60,000. She became the third writer to win this Man Booker International Prize.She will receive the prize at a ceremony in Dublin on June 25, 2009.
BIOGRAPHY
Alice Munro was born in 1931 in Wingham, Ontario, Canada to a farming family as the daughter of Robert Eric Laidlaw and a school teacher Anee Clarke Laidlaw. Munro was starting her writing as a teenager and published her first story “The Dimensions of a Shadow,” while a student at the University of Western Ontario in 1950.In 1951, she was married to James Munro and they have three daughters. After her marriage, she moved with her husband to Vancouver. In 1963 they moved to Victoria where they opened Munro’s Books. Their marriage life was ended in 1972 and she moved back to Ontario and then returned to the University of Western Ontario. In 1976, she was married to Gerals Fremlin and they have lived in the town of Clinton,Ontario. She published her first collection of stories,”Dance of the Happy Shades”, in 1968, which won Canada’s prestigious “Governor General’s Award”. She was also runner-up the ‘Booker Prize’ for her ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ in 1978. Her other works include ‘The Moons of Jupiter in 1982,’The Progress of Love’ in 1986, ‘Friend of My Youth’ in 1990,’Open secrets’ in 1996,’The Love of a Good Woman’ in 1998,’Hateship, Friendship,courtship,Loveship,Marriage’ in 2001,’No Love Lost’ in 2003, ‘Vintage Munro’ and ‘Runaway’ in 2004 and ‘The view from the castle Rock’, ‘Friend of My Youth’ in 2006.Her short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” was adapted into the acclaimed film “Away from Her,” starring Julie Christie. Munro’s latest collection of short stories, ‘Too Much Happiness’, will be published in October 2009.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
Alice Munro was achieved many awards and honors in her Career. She won the ‘Governor General’s Award’ for her first collection of short stories, “Dance of the Happy Shades” in 1968, also runner-up the ‘Booker Prize’ for her ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ in 1978. She gained many other national and international awards including “Canadian Booksellers Association Awards” for ‘Lives Of Girls And Women’ in 1971, the first “Canada-Australia Literary” Prize in 1977,the inaugural “Marian Engel Award” in 1986, “Trillium Book Award” in 1990, “WH Smith Literary Award” in 1995, two “Giller prizes” in 1998, “WH Smith Literary Award” in 1998, “PEN/Malamud Award”for Excellence in Short Fiction in 1997, “Rea Award” in 2001 and “Commonwealth Writers Prize Regional Award” in 2005.’The Love of a Good Woman’ was also selected as a candidate in the CBC’s 2004 edition of Canada Reads, in which it was advocated by opera singer Measha Brueggergosman.Foreign Honorary Member of the “American Academy of Arts and Letters” in 1992, “The Royal Society of Canada’s Lorne Pierce Medal” in 1993 and Medal of Honor for Literature from the U.S. National Arts Club in 2005.
