SETS: SCHOLARSHIP ON ALICE MUNRO

In January 2015 J.R. (Tim) Struthers, who has been researching and publishing on Alice Munro for forty years, published two new volumes in her honour:  the first, under his sole editorship and entitled Alice Munro and the Souwesto Story, being a special issue of the American creative/critical journal Short Story; the second, co-edited with poet John B. Lee and entitled Alice Munro: A Souwesto Celebration, being a special issue of the Canadian creative/critical journal Windsor Review.  Included in the former is a partly critical, partly creative, partly bibliographical essay by Tim called “Song for Alice Munro” and in the latter an experimental essay by him on Munro’s classic story “Me neseteung.”  Also in January 2015 the American reference series Short Story Criticism issued an early much-cited interview by Tim with Munro in addition to a much-expanded, now 60-page version of his 20-page 1975 essay, “Alice Munro and the American South,” the first scholarly essay on Munro published world-wide.  Of the history of the composition of this essay, one can imagine a possible headline:  “University of Guelph professor finishes essay ... 40 years later!”  (Or maybe not.)