Quill & Quire » Editing Alice Munro

Editing Alice Munro
Canadian author Alice Munro holds one of her books as she receives her Man Booker International award at Trinity College Dublin, in Dublin, Ireland, on June 25, 2009. Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has won this year's Man Booker International Prize worth 60,000 pounds (95,000 US dollars, 70,000 euros). It is awarded every two years, and since its creation in 2005 has been given to Albania's Ismail Kadare and Nigeria's Chinua Achebe. The panel, which comprised writers Jane Smiley, Amit Chaudhuri and Andrey Kurkov, praised the 77-year-old for the originality and depth of her work. AFP PHOTO/ Peter Muhly (Photo credit should read PETER MUHLY/AFP/Getty Images)
Canadian author Alice Munro holds one of her books as she receives her Man Booker International award at Trinity College Dublin, in Dublin, Ireland, on June 25, 2009. Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has won this year's Man Booker International Prize worth 60,000 pounds (95,000 US dollars, 70,000 euros). It is awarded every two years, and since its creation in 2005 has been given to Albania's Ismail Kadare and Nigeria's Chinua Achebe. The panel, which comprised writers Jane Smiley, Amit Chaudhuri and Andrey Kurkov, praised the 77-year-old for the originality and depth of her work. AFP PHOTO/ Peter Muhly (Photo credit should read PETER MUHLY/AFP/Getty Images)

It's hard to imagine anyone editing Alice Munro, possibly the most precise writer in the English language. Munro doesn't build sentences by accretion in the manner of verbose writers like Norman Mailer or Salman Rushdie - she works by paring away, by deciding what words not to use.

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