Frail Munro won't attend Nobel prize ceremony

Alice Munro, 82, winner of the Nobel Literature Prize, will not be able to attend the prize ceremony in Stockholm in December, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy said Friday. "Her health is simply not good enough," Peter Englund wrote on his blog. "All parties - including Mrs Munro herself - regret this, but there is no way around this," he wrote. The Swedish Academy could not get hold of Munro before announcing the winner last Friday, but when Englund finally reached her several hours later, she indicated she probably would not be able to go. "I'm an old woman, and my health is frail," she told Englund according to his blog. Munro, hailed by the Academy as "a master of the contemporary short story," is not the first literature laureate unable attend the prize ceremony in Stockholm due to health reasons. Two recent female laureates, Doris Lessing (2008) and Elfriede Jelinek (2004), received their prizes at the Swedish embassies in their respective home countries.