From an interview with Alice Munro and her longtime publisher, Douglas Gibson, after she won the Trillium Award for “Dear Life” on June 18.

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/06/19/alice-munro-its-nice-to-go-out-with-a-bang/

Gibson: You have the amazing story of being at a cocktail party in Vancouver, where a professor said loudly and confidently, ‘Of course, I never read fiction by Canadians.’

Munro: Yes, that’s what he said!

Gibson: And that was regarded as a normal thing to say. Is anyone saying that aloud today?

Munro: Yes, that proved, to him, that he was a ‘serious’ person. And I think the same thing would apply to women. I remember lots of times hearing a man say, ‘Of course, I never read anything written by a woman.’

Gibson: Really?

Munro: Oh sure!

Post: Did you take it personally?

Munro: No. But I thought that’s the kind of jerk he is, that’s all.