Congratulations to Alice Munro for winning the Nobel Prize for literature

From the National Post:

The 82-year-old becomes the 110th Nobel laureate in literature and the first Canadian-based writer to secure the honour.

She also becomes only the 13th woman to receive the distinction.

Considered one of the world’s greatest living writers of short stories, Munro last published the 2012 collection Dear Life. That book won the Ontario-born writer her third Trillium Book Award.

Related: Alice Munro: “It’s nice to go out with a bang”

She has also previously won the Man Booker International Prize for her entire body of work, as well as two Scotiabank Giller Prizes, three Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the inaugural Marian Engel Award and the American National Book Critics Circle Award.

She had been considered a perennial contender for the Nobel prize in literature, with British-based betting company Ladbrokes positioning her as the second-most likely recipient this year behind Japanese master Haruki Murakami.

Among Munro’s celebrated works are her 1968 debut Dance of the Happy Shades, 1986’s The Progress of Love, 2004’s Runaway and 1978’s Who Do You Think You Are?

Past winners include such literature luminaries as George Bernard Shaw, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Hesse, T.S. Eliot and Toni Morrison, with the last three prizes being awarded to Chinese writer Mo Yan, Sweden’s Tomas Transtromer and Spanish scribe Mario Vargas Llosa. Canadian-born, American-raised writer Saul Bellow won in 1976.

The award money fluctuates, but in 2012 the monetary value of the prize was 8,000,000 Swedish krona (roughly $1.3-million).

In other book news:

The short lists for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s award have been released. If anyone wants to review any of the books making the lists, I’d be glad to post your review on Quick Brown Fox.

Quick Brown Fox also welcomes reviews of plays, movies, restaurants and anything else that catches your fancy. Right now, I’d especially love a review of: 

Blood by Lawrence Hill

A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay, 

The Orenda by Joseph Boyden, 

The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak

The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lamb

If you have questions about submitting a review – or to send me a review – email me at brianhenry@sympatico.ca

More information on submitting reviews to Quick Brown Fox, here.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Kingston, Peterborough, Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Bolton, Caledon, Georgetown, Milton, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Dundas, Kitchener, Guelph, London, Woodstock, Orangeville, Newmarket, Barrie, Orillia, Sudbury, Muskoka, Peel, Halton, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.