Alice Munro

Table of Contents



Biography

 Munro’s Stories

 Southern Ontario Gothic

 Miles City, Montana

 Bibliography

 Biography



Early Years



Alice Laidlaw was born on the 10 July 1931 in Wingham,

th

 Ontario, Canada.

Her father was a farmer who raised foxes and poultry,

 and her mother was a schoolteacher.

1949-1951 – she attended the University of Western

 Ontario, with English as a major.

The Dimensions of a Shadow,

She published her first story,

 in 1950 in the student literary magazine «Folio».

During university she worked as a waitress, a tobacco

 picker, and a library clerk.

First Marriage



1951 – She left the university to marry James Munro and move

 to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Her daughters Sheila, Catherine, and Jenny were born in 1953,

 1955, and 1957 respectively; Catherine died 15 hours after birth.

Her writing progressed very slowly during these years.



“I never intended to be a short story writer. I started writing them because I

didn’t have time to write anything else – I had three children. And then I

got used to writing stories, so I saw my material that way, and now I don’t

think I’ll ever write a novel.”

1963 – They moved to Victoria and opened the bookstore

 Munro's Books.

1966 – Their daughter Andrea was born.

 1972 – Alice and James Munro divorced.

 First Collections



Writer-in-Residence at the University of Western Ontario.

 1976 – She married Gerald Fremlin, a geographer. They moved to a

 farm outside Clinton, Ontario. Dance of the Happy Shades.

1968 – First collection of stories, It won

 the Governor General’s Award, Canada’s highest literary prize.

of Girls and Women

1971 –Lives

 – Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You

1974 , a collection of

 interlinked stories published as a novel.

Who Do You Think You Are,

1978 – a collection of interlinked stories.

 This book earned Munro a second Governor General’s Literary

Award.

1979-1982 – She toured Australia, China and Scandinavia.

 1980 – Munro held the position of Writer-in-Residence at both the

 University of British Columbia and the University of Queensland.

Recent Years



The Progress of Love

1987 – gave her her third Governor General’s

 Award.

The Love of a Good

1998 –

 – Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage

2001

 – Runaway

2004

 2002 – Her daughter Sheila Munro published a childhood memoir,

 Lives of Mothers and Daughters: Growing Up With Alice Munro.

The View from Castle Rock

2006 –

 Too Much Happiness.

August 2009 – Latest collection,

 At a Toronto appearance in October 2009, Munro indicated that she

 received treatment for cancer and a heart condition, the latter

requiring bypassing surgery. At that time, she indicated that her

next work would involve a theme of sexual ambivalence.

Munro’s Stories



A Short Story Writer



She said she began writing things down when she was

 about twelve, and at age fifteen she decided she would

soon write a great novel, “but I thought perhaps I wasn’t

ready so I would write a short story in the meantime.”

Her stories frequently appear in publications such as «The

 New Yorker», «The Atlantic Monthly», «Grand Street»,

«Mademoiselle», and «The Paris Review».

They had previously appeared in Canadian literary

 journals, such as «Tamarack Review» and «Canadian

Anthology,

Forum» and on the CBC radio program whose

producer, Robert Weaver, played a major rol