STOCKHOLM, Oct 10: Canada`s Alice Munro won the Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday for her short stories that focus on the frailties of the human condition, just the 13th woman to win the coveted award.

`Some critics consider her a Canadian Chekhov,` the Swedish Academy said, comparing her to the 19th-century Russian short story writer in a statement.

Munro, reached by CBC Television in Victoria, British Columbia, said she hoped the award `would make people see the short story as an important art; not just something you played around with until you get a novel written`.

The 82-year-old, who revealed in 2009 that she had undergone coro-na1y bypass surgery and been treated for cancer, said however that she did not think winning the prize would change her decision announced early this year to stop writing.

`You know, I was always thrilled at whatever came along like if I got published, I was thrilled. I still am, in a way,` she told the CBC.

Munro said she was `just terribly surprised` and delighted to learn that she had won the Nobel, after being woken by her daughter with the news. `I knew I was in the running, yes, but I never thought I would win,` she said.

She said she always viewed winning the Nobel as `one of those pipedreams` that `might happen, but it probably wouldn`t`.

The Swedish Academy was notimmediately able to reach Munro with the happy news, and eventually resorted to Twitter in search of the elusive laureate.

After a three-hour quest the academy finally managed to reach her, according to a spokesman.

The Swedish Academy hailed Munro`s `finely tuned storytelling, which is characterised by clarity and psychological realism`.

`Her stories are often set in small town environments, where the struggle for a socially acceptable existence often results in strained relationships and moral conflicts problems that stem from generational differences and colliding life ambitions.

Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy,spoke of Munro`s `phenomenal` intelligence and capacity for introspection.

`There is a kind of tenderness in her writing,` he told reporters.

`She writes about ordinary people with all their flaws and shortcomings, and yet with her tender approach she tells us the truth about people in a way so we can handle it.

Munro`s works include Who Do You ThinkYou Are? (1978 ), The Moons of Jupiter (1982), Runaway (2004), The View from Castle Rock ( 2006) and Too Much Happiness ( 2009).

The collection `Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage` (2001) became the basis of the 2006 film Away from Her directed by Sarah Polley. Her most recent collection is Dear Life (2012).Born on July 10, 1931 in Wingham, Ontario, she grew up in the countryside.

`I think maybe I was successful in doing this because I didn`t have any other talents,` she once said in an interview.

Munro, who was awarded the prize of 8 million crowns ($1.25m) by the committee, said her daughter woke her up to give her the news.

Munro becomes the second Canadian-born writer to win the prize, although she is the first winner to be thought of as distinctly Canadian. Saul Bellow, who won the award in 1976, was born in Quebec but raised in Chicago and is widely considered an American writer.-Agencies