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Alice Munro wins Man Booker prize

Alice Munro, already one of the most honoured writers in Canada, has won the Man Booker International Prize.
ALICE MUNRO
Giller Prize nominee Alice Munro smiles as she arrives for the Giller Prize dinner in Toronto on Nov. 11

LONDON — Alice Munro, already one of the most honoured writers in Canada, has won the Man Booker International Prize.

The prize is awarded every two years to a living author for a body of work that has contributed to an achievement in fiction on the world stage.

On receiving the news of her win, she said, “I am totally amazed and delighted,” a news release said.

Munro has won three Governor General’s awards, two Scotiabank Giller Prizes and an O Henry Award in the United States for her short fiction.

The judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize 2009 is: Jane Smiley, writer; Amit Chaudhuri, writer, academic and musician; and writer, film script writer and essayist, Andrey Kurkov.

The panel said: “Munro is mostly known as a short story writer and yet she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels.”

“To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before.”

Her latest collection of short stories, Too Much Happiness, will be published in October 2009.

Munro will receive the prize of $105,000 and a trophy at the Award Ceremony on June 25 at Trinity College, Dublin.