Alice Munro, born Alice Ann Laidlaw, was a Canadian writer who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature and the Man Booker International Prize in 2009 for her lifetime body of work. She specializes in short story writing and is known for her easy-to-read and moving style that explores human complexities effortlessly. She was regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of fiction. The focus of her stories was her native place, southwestern Ontario, and she often described the local people, their aspirations, and lifestyles in her writings. She began writing as a teenager and published her first story as a student. Her first collection of stories, ‘Dance of the Happy Shades’ was highly appreciated and won the Governor General's Award, Canada’s highest literary prize. Her strong regional focus and complex female characters were characteristic of her writings. Most of her works belonged to the literary genre known as Southern Ontario Gothic. One recurrent theme in the stories she wrote in her youth was that of a girl coming of age and dealing with the associated challenges and confusions. Maturing as a writer and a woman, the focus of her stories shifted to the challenges faced by middle-aged and elderly women.