Canadian writer Alice Munro is the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. This classic collectionnow revised and expandedis the perfect introduction to Nobel Laureate Alice Munro's brilliant, revelatory short stories, in which she unfolds the wordless secrets that lie at the center of human experience.The Swedish Academy, which gives Nobel Prizes out this time of year, calls for master of the contemporary short story. The prize, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, is given to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction. Canadian author Alice Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize In Literature on Thursday for her finely tuned storytelling.

'I would really hope this would make people see the short story as an important art, not just something you played around with until you got a novel,' said Alice Munro when she won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature. After finishing high school, she began studying journalism and English at the University of Western Ontario, but broke off her studies when she got married in 1951.Munro, who at 82 is too frail to fly, shared her joy at receiving the 1.3m (790,000) prize, and thoughts on being the 13th woman to win it, in a video interview on the Nobel Prize website.GREENE: So we have an editor at MORNING EDITION from Canada, and he literally jumped out of his seat when he heard this news.Short stories can be wonders of style and compressed psychological insight, yet they get too little notice among general readers. Her mother was a teacher, and her father was a fox farmer. Lynn, good morningAlice Munro was born on the 10th of July, 1931 in Wingham, which is in the Canadian province of Ontario. And joining us to talk about the selection is NPR's Lynn Neary.

But, you know, her stories really explore human emotions in a way that anyone can understand. She writers about Canada and Canadians. She also lived in Vancouver when she was a young wife and mother. She lives in the small town of Clinton, Ontario, and that's very near where she was born. Because she is quintessentially Canadian.

She really does focus on relationships, love affairs, domestic life, marriage. Many of her collections, 'The Moons of Jupiter,' 'Too Much Happiness,' her most recent collection, 'Dear Life,' these will go on to attract fans all over the world.GREENE: Amazing for someone who's just practicing ends up winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.GREENE: You know, the committee often selects writers who have a - who seemed to have a political bent in their works, not the case here with Alice Munro.NEARY: No. And then she says, I realized that I couldn't do anything, which, of course, it shows you how self-effacing she is because she is a brilliant short story writer.And I think she has helped to popularized the genre again. So she was practicing with her short stories. She was very busy, didn't have time to write a novel. Munro talked about her writing, and she said that when she started writing short stories, she thought she was practicing for novel and waiting for the time, because she had - I think she had four children.

The writer Cynthia Ozick once said, she is our Chekhov. And yet, somehow, she draws into their lives in a way that's really compelling and revealing. You don't know it's going to be such an interesting afternoon.

Alice Munro Nobel Prize