via cbc:

NEW YORK - Ex-pat Canadian Mavis Gallant was among a list of PEN International's recent literary prizewinners.

The international writers' organization named the Montreal-born short story writer winner of the $20,000 US PEN/Nabokov Award for her "enduring originality and consummate craftsmanship."

The Paris-based Gallant, whose short story collections include Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories and From the Fifteenth District: A Novella and Eight Stories, started out as a feature reporter for Montreal newspapers in the mid-1940s. She wrote fiction on the side and, in 1950, decided to move to Europe and dedicate herself to writing full-time. The Governor General's Award-winner was named a Companion to the Order of Canada in 1993.