I’m thrilled to hear that Alice Munro has received the Nobel Prize for Literature. I’m even more thrilled to see that most of the rest of the world is just as thrilled as I am. So much has been said about her brilliant work that I don’t need to go on about it here, but I will say that there are several reasons to rejoice about this choice, even beyond her artistic brilliance.
          She’s a woman.
          She’s advanced in years.
         She’s Canadian.
But even beyond these, there is something else about the Nobel committee’s choice that fills my heart with hope, and that is the hope that this announcement will herald a change in the status of the short story in the contemporary literary world.

It seems to me that the life of that genre has been particularly fraught. There was a time when the short story was the most respected and widely read genre of all. There was a time when writers could choose to stick with short stories rather than switching to “the big guns” (ie novels), and that that choice would be understood and respected. There was a time when the ability to write good short stories was seen to be what it really is, the ability to do a specific thing, like play the flute instead of the piano. Both instruments are difficult to play, but each requires it’s own specific set of skills and talents. Recently I think, many would say that the proper comparison was not between the flute and the piano, but rather between the flute and the recorder. The recorder is what you learn first before you make the move to a “real” instrument, i.e. the flute, if you are able. Too many people  (including mainstream publishers) have forgotten that the short story is a “real” genre in its own right. And what a shame that is.

Of course, no one who has ever tried to write a short story would think that the recorder vs flute analogy was appropriate (and my apologies to professional recorder players who have the same prejudice to deal with, and I’m only making that worse here. But…)  As it turns out,  many writers who excel at novel writing fall short when it comes to short stories. Indeed, I think it is a rare writer who is equally adept at both. But this is all by way of saying that I hope that Munro’s prize will now bring about the real respect that the short story deserves. Actually, the beginnings of that resurgence can already be seen in the relatively new set of short story prizes available, and the growing body of collections being published. I hope this award heralds a return to an age where the short story is held in as high an esteem as the novel, and that my friends who love writing short stories and excel in that genre don’t have to listen continually to the demands of publishers for longer and longer works.

Alice Munro, of course