Hammer Museum’s reading discussion series pays tribute to Alice Munro

In the mid 1970s, Alice Munro’s short stories had to travel more than 200 miles across Ontario from rural Wingham to Toronto to get published. But for Mona Simpson – a UC Berkeley undergraduate at the time – the stories weren’t traveling far enough.

“I’ve been reading Alice Munro since college,” said Simpson, award-winning novelist and creative writing professor. “But this was before they were published in the United States, so a friend of mine would go to Canada and smuggle her books down.”

Although the book smuggling was more the result of a friendly favor than actual illegal trafficking, Simpson said that the books, once they had them in their hands, were treasured. Her interest had been piqued in Munro after reading her short story “Royal Beatings” in the March 1977 edition of The New Yorker.

Simpson said that when Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013, in addition to it being an acknowledgment of a prolific and revolutionary career, it was also a validation of personal taste. The upcoming edition of Simpson’s reading discussion series will be a tribute to the Ontario-born short story author in “Some Favorite Writers: A Celebration of Alice Munro” at the Hammer Museum.

Joining in the discussion are three figures that Simpson said have been central to Munro’s literary stardom: long-time editor Ann Close, agent Virginia Barber and the author of Munro’s biography “Alice Munro: Writing Her Lives,” Robert Thacker.

The program will contain readings of selected Munro favorites as well as an audience-involved discussion with the assembled colleagues. Oscar-nominated actress Annette Bening will conclude the evening by reading from Munro’s latest release, “Dear Life.”

After leaving her hometown of Wingham, Munro pursued English and journalism at the University of Western Ontario where she wrote for her school paper, The Gazette. But Thacker said it wasn’t until teaming up with Barber that Munro was able to reach a wider audience in the United States.

“Since The New Yorker published Munro’s story ‘Royal Beatings’ in March of 1977, she’s had 63 other stories in the magazine,” Thacker said. “It was also Barber who got her contracted with Knopf Publishing House and Ann Close.”

Close said her personal friendship with Munro has blossomed over their 40 years of collaboration.

“Writing is a pretty lonely business, and the editor’s the person you have in it with you,” Close said. “If there’s not a close relationship, a writer ought to try a different editor.”

The result of this collaboration, Thacker said, is that Munro’s career has produced some of the English language’s finest contemporary short story collections. Chief among them are 1978’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” and 1986’s “The Progress of Love,” both of which earned the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.

“She’s always had the ability to write stories that reach into your chest and rip your heart out,” Thacker said. “There’s a heft, a density and a quality of profundity to her work.”

Close said Munro’s stories, however, have always been accessible, even to a younger audience.

“One of (Munro’s) most salient features is that she writes about things happening to young people that most writers overlook,” Close said. “That makes her more than special.”

Close said many of Munro’s earlier works focus on youthful subjects and cover the familiar story lines of young adult fiction, albeit with more expertise and a keener eye for detail.

Echoing Close’s words, Simpson said she also feels Munro’s work is important for young people to engage with.

“My thinking is that there will be a number of book groups that will spring up and start concentrating on (Munro),” Simpson said. “And I hope that some of the young, talented scholars at UCLA will start writing about her work in an analytical way.”