Since publishing her first short story in 1950, "The Dimensions of a Shadow," Canadian writer Alice Munro, now ninety, has published 163 short stories. The short story is her primary genre, and it was on the basis of her long career of short-story writing that she won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2013. While her book Lives of Girls and Women from 1971 was initially billed as a novel and does focus on the life of one character, Munro later backed away from the characterization of it as novel rather than as a series of short stories.

Munro's short stories have been acclaimed since early on. Her 1968, book of short stories called Dance of the Happy Shades won what was once Canada's highest literary award, the Governor General's award. She is celebrated for innovating with the short story genre and put out numerous short story collections from the 1980s through to 2012.