Alice Munro’s daughter accepts Nobel on mother’s behalf

King Carl Gustaf of Sweden has presented the Nobel Prize in literature to Alice Munro’s daughter Jenny at a ceremony in Stockholm.

The Canadian short story legend was named the 110th Nobel laureate in October, but was too unwell to travel to the Swedish capital to receive the $1.2 million Cdn award.

Raised in the southwestern Ontario farming community of Wingham, Munro is only the 13th woman to receive the distinction.

The prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics are also being awarded Tuesday during the ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall.

The peace prize was presented at an earlier event.

The ceremony will be followed by a lavish dinner to be attended by Sweden’s royal family as well as other dignitaries.

Professor Carl-Henrik Heldin, chairman of the board of the Nobel Foundation, acknowledged Munro at the beginning of Tuesday’s proceedings.

“We send our warmest greetings to Alice Munro, who was unable to come to Stockholm. We are glad that Jenny Munro is here to receive the prize on behalf of her mother.”

Jenny Munro received the Nobel Medal, a diploma and a document confirming the prize amount.

Alice Munro’s ex-husband, Jim Munro — who owns a Victoria bookstore that bears his name — said earlier this week that the entire family is thrilled about the prestigious honour.

He says Jenny was initially reluctant about the trip but has been having a great time since arriving in Stockholm last week.

“It will be terrific,” he said in an interview. “I saw last year’s, there’s a video of last year’s Nobel Prize award and it’s fantastic. Great theatre, the king and queen and all the beautiful princesses. It’s all white tie and tails, you know, and ball gowns. Everything is very formal, they make a big thing out of this.”

“It’s just like something out of ‘Anna Karenina.’ So it will be great fun. My daughter Jenny — well she wasn’t all that keen on going at first — but now that she’s over there, she’s just having a ball.”

Alice Munro is staying with her daughter Sheila in Victoria. Jim Munro said he said he wasn’t sure whether his former wife would be watching the ceremony but added that she is “thrilled” about the honour.

“I think she’s quite enjoying it,” he said with a hearty laugh. “We all think that it’s great for her, it’s great for Canada, it’s great for women writers and it’s great for the short story. So you know it’s all a plus.”

Munro has previously won the Man Booker International Prize for her entire body of work, as well as two Scotiabank Giller Prizes (for 1998’s “The Love of a Good Woman” and 2004’s “Runaway”), three Governor General’s Literary Awards (for her 1968 debut “Dance of the Happy Shades,” 1978’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” and 1986’s “The Progress of Love”), the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the inaugural Marian Engel Award and the American National Book Critics Circle Award.

Born in 1931 in the southwestern Ontario farming community of Wingham, Munro later moved to Victoria with Jim Munro, with whom she had three children. The couple eventually divorced and Munro moved back to Ontario. She eventually remarried Gerald Fremlin, who died earlier this year.