Canada Wins A Nobel Prize!

Last week, author Alice Munro, 82, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the first time such an honour has been bestowed on the country. The Swedish Academy praised her as "a master of the contemporary short story." Munro has long been reclusive and as a testament to that, the Academy tweeted that they had had to live the author a message about the award.

Other Canadian authors, such as Michael Ondaajte, weighed in the momentous occasion, telling the Globe and Mail that “What I love is that all her stories feel so private and intimate. They have their own code,” he said about her stories. “They don’t have a large public or rhetorical voice. So the readers have to come to her. She doesn’t go out to them.” Margaret Atwood told The Globe that the prize is “long overdue for a Canadian."

Munro is only the 13th female laureate since the literature prize was launched more than a century ago in 1901. Other past winners have included Doris Lessing and Toni Morrison. She has written 14 books of short stories and has won a host of literary awards over the years including The Giller twice and the Man Booker for lifetime achievement. Earlier this year she announced that she is retiring, explaining that her book Dear Life is to be her last. However, Munro was reportedly so pleased by the news that she admitted she “might change her mind” about putting down her pen.