Alice Munro (born Alice Ann Laidlaw on July 10, 1931) is a noted Canadian short story writer. Munro is widely considered one of the greatest short story writers in modern literature.

She was born in Wingham, Ontario and currently lives in the small town of Clinton, Ontario. She is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario.

On November 11, 2004, Munro won the Giller Prize for her short story collection Runaway. It is her second Giller; her first was won in 1998 for The Love of a Good Woman. This collection was also selected as a candidate in the CBC's 2004 edition of Canada Reads. She has also previously won the Governor General's Award three times, for Dance of the Happy Shades, Who Do You Think You Are? and The Progress of Love.

Much of Munro's work exemplifies the literary genre known as Southern Ontario Gothic.

In 1986 she was awarded the Marian Engel Award for her body of work. In 1993 she was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal.

In 2002, her daughter Sheila Munro published a childhood memoir, .

Works

• Dance of the Happy Shades - 1968 (winner of the 1968 Governor General's Award for Fiction)
• Lives of Girls and Women - 1971
• Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You - 1974
• Who Do You Think You Are? - 1978 (winner of the 1978 Governor General's Award for Fiction)
• The Moons of Jupiter - 1982 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
• The Progress of Love - 1986 (winner of the 1986 Governor General's Award for Fiction)
• Friend of My Youth - 1990 (winner of the Trillium Book Award)
• Open Secrets - 1994 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
• The Love of a Good Woman - 1998 (winner of the 1998 Giller Prize)
• Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage - 2001
• Runaway - 2004 (winner of the 2004 Giller Prize) ISBN 140004281X

In addition, Munro has published three "best of" volumes, collecting stories previously published in the above-noted books:

• Selected Stories - 1996
• No Love Lost - 2003
• Vintage Munro - 2004