It’s a Good Time to Be a Woman in Literature

On October 10, legendary Canadian author Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Canadian-based author to ever receive the honour*, and only the 13th woman overall in the history of the prize. It’s an interesting award because, rather than just one book, the winner is judged on a lifetime of work. While announcing her win, the Swedish academy referred to the 82-year-old author as, “Master of the contemporary short story.”

Now, the Man Booker Prize, a prestigious annual award given to “the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Republic of Ireland, or Zimbabwe,” has just been awarded to New Zealand author Eleanor Catton for her novel The Luminaries, set in the 19th century goldfields of New Zealand.

A bit of history. The 45-year-old prize was originally just called the Booker Prize from 1969 –…