• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Munro Wins the Nobel

October 10, 2013
By Sarah Weinman

The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded this morning to Alice Munro, cited briefly as “master of the contemporary short story.” She is the 13th woman and first Canadian (aside from 1976 winner Saul Bellow, born near Montreal) to win the literature prize, which comes one year after her most recent short story collection DEAR LIFE and several months after telling the National Post and the New York Times she had retired from writing.

In a follow-up interview with press Swedish Academy permanent secretary Peter Englund said: “I think no one has better deconstructed the central myth of modern romantic love; not just saying it means this or means that, but showing that people can feel very, very different things about it…. She is a fantastic portrayer of human beings.”

Munro’s longtime Canadian publisher at McClelland & Stewart Doug Gibson told the Canadian Press the decision was “wonderful news for all of us. Canada has just won the Nobel Prize for Literature…People have asked if I’m surprised. No, I’m not surprised. She deserves it. It’s about time, but it’s wonderful that this has now happened.”

Penguin Random House, which also houses Munro’s long-standing American publisher Knopf and Spanish-language publisher Lumen, stated there was “jubilation and great pride today”  throughout the company worldwide, extending “our joyous good wishes to our beloved author and to our family of her publishers and editors.”

Clara Farmer, publishing director of her UK publisher Chatto, told the Bookseller: “Alice is one of the best-loved authors in the world. We all have tears in our eyes. It feels like all’s right in the world when Alice Munro is top of the tree. It’s simply thrilling.”

Amusingly, the Nobel Prize had some trouble getting a hold of Munro, leaving a voice message with the news. CBC reported she eventually found out through a call from her daughter, who said: “Mom, you won!” Munro’s initial reaction: “I had forgotten all about this. But it is wonderful…I didn’t know I was on a list until yesterday. I’m dazed…there will now be more thought about Canadian writers.”

Filed Under: Authors, Awards, Free

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Taylor & Francis to Make Voluntary Separation Offer; Threatens Layoffs to Follow September 25, 2023 Bookseller
  • Rupert Murdoch to Retire from News Corp and Fox Boards September 21, 2023 NYT
  • OpenAI's New DALL-E3 Lets Artists Opt-Out of Future Training; Rejects Request to Mimic the Style of Living Artists September 20, 2023 TechCrunch
  • Another Response to AI-Generated Books: KDP Lowers Limit On Number of Titles You Can Create, "To Help Protect Against Abuse" September 18, 2023 KDP Forum
  • TikTok (and Instagram) Stars Sell Cookbooks September 18, 2023 NYT
  • Actor and UK Harry Potter Audiobook Narrator Stephen Fry Demonstrates How His Voice Was Copied By AI Without Permission September 18, 2023 Deadline
  • Neal Sofman, Legend of Bay Area Independent Booksellers, dies at 75 September 15, 2023 SF Chronicle
  • Major Textbook Publishers Trying Suing Shadow Library LibGen Again September 15, 2023 Torrent Freak
  • Deesha Philyaw Has Seven-Figure Deal with Mariner for "The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman" in 2025 and "Girl, Look" September 14, 2023 AP
  • Copyright Office Doubles Down on Declining to Register Award-Winning Midjourney-Created AI Art September 12, 2023 Copyright Review Board document
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.