阅读理解Canadian short story writer Alice Munro wonthe Nobel Prize for Literature. Eighty-two-year-old Munro is only the 13thwoman to win the 112-year-old prize.
Munro didn't publish her first collectionof short stories until she was 37 years old, but her stories have always beenwell-received. Lots of her stories share similar themes and characters, buteach story has its own twists and turns.
Even though she's won Canada's most famousliterary award, the Giller Prize, twice, winning the Nobel Prize for Literatureis the cherry on top of Munro's career. “It brings this incredible recognition,both of her and her career,and of the dedication to the short story,”said one person.
Along with the well-respected title comes1.3 million dollars. Munro said everything was “so surprising and wonderful”and that she was “dazed by all the attention and affection that has been comingmy way.”
Munro knew she was in the running—she wasnamed the second-most likely person to win this year's prize, after HarukiMurakami(村上春树)of Japan—but she never thought that she would win.
Munro's win also represents the long wayCanadian writers have come. “When I began writing there was a very smallcommunity of Canadian writers and little attention was paid by the world. NowCanadian writers are read, admired and respected around the globe,” Munro saidon Thursday.
She is technically not the first Canadianto win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but many like to think that she is.In 1976 Saul Bellow, who was born in Quebecbut moved to Chicago when he was still a child, won the prize. Even though hewas born in Canada, he is mostly considered to be an American writer.
“This is a win for us all. Canadians, byour very nature,are not very nationalistic,” said Geoffrey Taylor. “But things like thissuddenly make you want to find a flag.”
She wasn't sure whether she would keepwriting if she won the prize,saying that it would be “nice to go out with a bang. But this may change mymind.”