On this day, July 10, in 1931, Alice Munro was born in Wingham, Ontario, Canada. The undisputed Queen of the Contemporary Short Story, she received a Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013, a Man Booker International Prize in 2009, a National Book Critics Circle Award (1998) and three O.Henry Awards, among many other honors and accolades. She published her first story as a teenager, and her first collection (highly acclaimed and honored) came less than 20 years later. Hallmarks of her writing include being set in Huron County, Ontario, a nameless narrator who makes sense of the world, a free-flowing timeline, and simple, uncomplicated prose. Today she turns 89.
