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Munro, Alice

Munro, Alice, 1931–, Canadian writer. Much acclaimed as one of the finest contemporary short-story writers, Munro is known for quiet, insightfully realistic, and irony-tinged works dealing with daily life, written in an elegantly unobtrusive prose. These tales are mainly about the lives of girls and women, are often set in rural Ontario, and frequently concern the conflicts between independence and domesticity, creativity and obligation. Other recurring themes in her fiction include the interrelatedness of poverty and shame, the subtleties of class distinctions, the intricacies of women's sexuality, and the complex problems of the female artist. Collections of her many stories include Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You (1974), The Beggar Maid (1979), The Progress of Love (1986), Friend of My Youth (1990), The Love of a Good Woman (1998), Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (2001), Runaway (2004), Carried Away (2006), and The View from Castle Rock (2006), stories that mingle fiction, history, and memoir, tracing Munro's family from 17th-century Scotland to modern Canada. Munro also has written one novel, Lives of Girls and Women (1971).

See biography by E. D. Blodgett (1988); biographical memoir, Lives of Mothers and Daughters: Growing Up with Alice Munro (2001) by her daughter, S. Munro; studies by L. K. MacKendrick, ed. (1983), H. Dahlie (1984), W. R. Martin (1987), I. de P. Carrington (1989), J. Carscallen (1993), A. Heble (1994), C. A. Howells (1998), R. Thacker, ed. (1999), and J. McCaig (2002).