Canadian author Alice Munro has won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Canadian author Alice Munro has won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature.
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Making the announcement, Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, called her a "master of the contemporary short story".
The 82-year-old, whose books include Dear Life and Dance of the Happy Shades, is only the 13th woman to win the prize since its inception in 1901.
Munro, who began writing in her teenage years, published her first story, The Dimensions of a Shadow, in 1950.
Dance of the Happy Shades, published in 1968, was Munro's first collection, and it went on to win Canada's highest literary prize, the Governor General's Award.
In 2009, she won the Man Booker International Prize for her entire body of work - but she downplayed her achievements.
Often compared to Anton Chekhov, she is known for writing about the human spirit and a regular theme of her work is the dilemma faced by young girls growiung up and coming to terms with living in a small town.
The Nobel academy praised her "finely tuned storytelling, which is characterised by clarity and psychological realism".
Munro will be presented with her latest award at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, who established the prize.
Last year's recipient was Chinese novelist Mo Yan.J
