TORONTO — Alice Munro won her first Governor General's literary award 36 years ago. But the much-feted Canadian author was still tickled to learn that her short story collection Runaway made this year's list of nominees, announced Tuesday.

"You think, when you get to my age, that these things don't really matter in the big scale of life,'' Munro, 73, said in a telephone interview from her home in Clinton, Ont.

"But I still get ... a sort of basic delight when (I'm) nominated for something.''

It's been an impressive fall for the sometimes reclusive Munro, who has also been nominated for the prestigious Giller prize and was glowingly profiled in the latest edition of the New York Times Magazine.

As a Governor General's award nominee, she will compete against Trevor Cole of Hamilton, Ont., who was cited for Norman Bray, In the Performance of His Life; Toronto's David Bezmozgis, who got a nod for Natasha and Other Stories; and Montrealer Colin McAdam, recognized for Some Great Thing.

Winnipegger Miriam Toews was also a finalist, for her novel A Complicated Kindness. Toews, another dual Giller/Governor General nominee, said she has been "shocked and amazed'' by the recent accolades.

"It's so great and you don't expect it and you can't really figure out why it's happening,'' she said on the phone from Winnipeg.

"You toil away in isolated conditions writing ... hoping that people are going to like it but you don't write to win prizes.''

That sentiment was echoed by Anne Coleman, who, at 68, was nominated in the non-fiction category for her first book, I'll Tell You a Secret: A Memory of Seven Summers.

It's the story of a friendship she had as an adolescent with acclaimed Canadian writer Hugh MacLennan. Coleman said the book was an attempt to "(come) to understand things that happened long ago.''

The nomination is also welcome validation, added the Victoria resident, for someone whose first book was published later in life.

"When I was a little girl I thought I wanted to be a writer when I grew up and then I got sidetracked by life, yet felt `someday I will do it,''' she said.

"When I finally got to it, well it turns out I can do it.''

Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire, who is from Quebec City, was also nominated in the non-fiction category for his gripping account of his effort to stop the Rwandan genocide.

The jury called Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda "a book of singular importance and courage in the voice of the principal witness of the Rwandan tragedy.''

The other nominees in the category are: Dark Age Ahead, by urban expert and Toronto resident Jane Jacobs; Acquainted with the Night: Excursions through the World after Dark by Christopher Dewdney, also from Toronto; and Jan Zwicky for Wisdom & Metaphor.

In the drama category, St. John's playwright Robert Chafe was celebrating his nomination for Robert Chafe: Two Plays. Butler's March, Tempting Providence.

It's his first published book, and a welcome boost, he said, for the Newfoundland theatre scene.

"What this kind of thing does is expose your work to such a large audience,'' said Chafe, who was in Toronto when the nominations were announced.

The other nominees for drama category are: Michael Healey of Toronto for Rune Arlidge; Karen Hines, also of Toronto, for The Pochsy Plays; Mieko Ouchi of Edmonton for The Red Priest and Vancouverite Morris Panych for Girl in the Goldfish Bowl.

The awards are to be handed out Nov. 15 and 16. Each prize is worth $15,000.