Alice Munro won’t go to Sweden to collect her Nobel Prize

Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize in Literature, but she won’t be attending the prize ceremony in Sweden.

On Friday, the head of the Swedish Academy Peter Englund announced on his blog that Munro was too frail to travel to Sweden. “Her health is simply not good enough,” he wrote. “All involved, including Mrs. Munro herself, regret this.”

Munro was announced as the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature on Oct. 10. The 82-year-old from Ontario, Canada, has chiefly written short stories, often set in the austere landscape she calls home.

“Her writing is quiet, character-driven, using precise language to evoke the lives of everyday people, and the glories and heartaches to be found in ordinary lives,” wrote Times book critic David L. Ulin after her win.

Now 82, Munro revealed in 2009 that she had been treated for cancer and had undergone bypass surgery. This summer she announced that she would retire from writing -- although she had tried that once before, and continued publishing books.

The ceremony presenting the Nobel Prize in Literature will be held Dec. 10. Who will atted in Munro’s stead has not yet been announced.

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