SOURCE: "Merciful Light," in Maclean's, Vol. 103, No. 19, May 7, 1990, pp. 66-7.

In the following essay, based on an interview with Munro following the publication of Friend of My Youth, Timson relates the importance and discipline of writing in Munro's life.

After a writer has been ranked with Chekhov, accused of perfection and called one of the greatest short-story writers in the world, it can be an intimidating task to write again. But, for Alice Munro, apparently nothing has changed. "I write the way I always have," she says. "I sit in a corner of the chesterfield and stare at the wall, and I keep getting it, and getting it, and when I've got it enough in my mind, I start to write. And then, of course, I don't really have it at all." Munro's fans, and the growing recognition and superlatives that her work receives internationally, belie such modesty...