Alice Munro too ill to attend Nobel Prize awards ceremony

Veteran author Alice Munro will miss out on collecting her Nobel Prize in Literature in person at the prizegiving in Sweden this December (13) due to ill health. The Canadian writer, 82, was last week (10Oct13) named the 2013 recipient of the coveted accolade, which is worth eight million Swedish krona ($1.15 million/£770,000).
A thrilled Munro, who retired following the release of her 2012 short story collection Dear Life, said at the time, “I knew I was in the running, but I never thought I would win.”
However, the author has had to bow out of appearing at the Stockholm awards ceremony.
In a post online on Friday (18Oct13), Peter Englund, head of the Swedish Academy, writes, “Her health is simply not good enough. All involved, including Mrs. Munro herself, regret this.”
Details about Munro’s health have not been revealed, but she revealed in 2009 that she had undergone heart surgery and had had cancer treatment.