The third ever Man Booker International Prize was announced late yesterday, and it has gone to Canada’s own Alice Munro. She is the first Canadian to win the biennial £60,000 prize (the two previous winners being Ismail Kadaré in 2005 and Chinua Achebe in 2007), which is awarded based on an entire body of work.

From the Man Booker website:

Best known for her short stories, Munro is one of Canada’s most celebrated writers. On receiving the news of her win, she said, ˜I am totally amazed and delighted.’

The judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize 2009 is: Jane Smiley, writer; Amit Chaudhuri, writer, academic and musician; and writer, film script writer and essayist, Andrey Kurkov. The panel made the following comment on the winner:

˜Alice Munro is mostly known as a short story writer and yet she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels. To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before.’