Congrats, Alice Munro

It is Nobel week and the Swedish Academy announced that Canadian author Alice Munro has won the 2013 Prize for Literature.

Unlike the past couple winners of the literature prize, I think I had heard of Munro before today’s news. Her name sounds familiar, at least. However, I have never read anything she has written. At least I think.

The CBC is all over the news and the BBC has this article.

Munro’s selection is notable because of her emphasis on short stories. From what I have heard, short stories are falling out of favor among writers and teachers, which is sad given their power and fine focus through brevity. I have always been a fan of short stories, especially since they seem to be the only fiction I can make myself write. (That novel is still swimming around in my head. I will write it at some point.) So much praise to the Swedish Academy to showing love to the short story, and congratulations to Munro.