Information about the Nobel Prize in Literature:
The Nobel Prize is the world's highest award given in the field of literature. The prize has been awarded annually by the Nobel Foundation since 1901 to an author of any country who, according to the will of Sir Alfred Nobel, "has made a significant contribution to the field of literature", although the individual's work is sometimes particularly noteworthy. No, the work here refers solely to the work of the author. It is the Swedish Academy that decides in which year to give this award.
The Academy announces the name of the selected winner in early October. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes that were established in 1895 in the will of Sir Alfred Nobel. Nobel Prizes are also given in the field of chemistry, in the field of physics, in the field of peace, and in the field of medicine and physiology. In the year 2020, New York-born writer Louise Gluck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2020. She was given the award by The Royal Swedish Academy for her novel "her unmatched poetic voice that beautifully universalises individual existence".
List of Nobel Laureates in Literature:
The year |
Winner's name |
language/work |
Birth place/nation |
2023 |
John Fosse |
John Fosse is given the award "for his innovative plays and prose that give voice to the unspoken." |
Norway
|
2022 |
Annie Arnoux |
Annie Arnoux was awarded for "the courage and clinical acuity with which she exposes personal memory, systems and collective sanctions". |
French |
2021 |
Abdul Razzaq Gurnah |
Abdulrajak Gurnah has been honored for his compassionate portrayal of the effects of colonialism and the condition of refugees in the gap between cultures and continents.
|
Tanzania |
2020 |
Lewis Gluck |
"Given for her unmatched poetic voice that beautifully universalises individual existence"
|
New York |
2019 |
Peter Handke |
Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director etc.
|
Griffen, Austria |
2018 |
Olga Tokariuk |
For novel flights
|
Poland, Central Europe |
2017 |
Kazuo Ishiguro |
For the novel The Remains of the Day
|
Japan |
2016 |
Bob Dylan |
American songwriter
|
America |
2015 |
Svetlana Alexievich |
- |
Belarus |
2014 |
Patrick Modiano |
- |
France |
2013 |
Alice Monroe |
- |
Canada |
2012 |
Mo Yan |
Novelist and short story writer
|
China |
2011 |
Tomas Transtromer |
Swedish language, poetry, memoir
|
Stockholm |
2010 |
Mario Vargas Liosa |
litterateur
|
Peru |
2009 |
Herta Mueller |
Poet and essayist
|
Romania |
2008 |
Jean Marie Gustave Leclezio |
French writer
|
Originally from Mauritius, France |
2007 |
Doris Lessing |
English
|
British |
2006 |
Orhan Pamuk |
- |
Stockholm |
2005 |
Harald Pinter |
- |
Stockholm |
2004 |
Elfride Yelinek |
- |
- |
1999 |
Gunter Grass |
German writer
|
German |
1997 |
Dario Pho |
Primarily an artist
|
Italy |
1996 |
Wislava Simborska |
Polish language
|
Kraków, Poland |
1991 |
Nadine Gordimer |
- |
South Africa |
1990 |
Octavio Paz |
- |
- |
1987 |
Joseph Brodsky |
- |
- |
1986 |
Wole Shoyinka |
Africa's first litterateur to be awarded the Nobel Prize
|
Africa |
1982 |
Gabriel García Márquez
|
- |
Rome and Paris |
1981 |
Elias Caneti |
German speaking
|
England |
1980 |
Cheswav Milosh |
Lithuanian language
|
Poland |
1978 |
Isaac Beshvis Singer |
Polish language
|
Poland |
1972 |
Henry Boll |
Spanish language
|
Argentina |
1971 |
Pablo Neruda |
Spanish poet
|
Argentina |
1970 |
Aleksandr Solshnitsyn |
Russian writer
|
Soviet |
1967 |
Miguel Angel Asturias |
Guatemalan poet and novelist
|
Guatemala |
1966 |
Nelly Saks |
- |
- |
1965 |
Mikhail Sholokhov |
Honored as a Russian novelist
|
Yhe Soviet Union |
1964 |
Jean Paul Sartre |
French philosopher
|
- |
1963 |
Giorgus Sepharis |
Greek poet
|
Born in smirna |
1962 |
John Steinbeck |
American novelist
|
America |
1961 |
Ivo Andrich |
Yugoslav storyteller
|
Born in Bosnia (Yugoslavia) |
1960 |
Alexis St. Lager |
French poet
|
Born in 'Léger Le Fule' Island (France) |
1959 |
Salvatore Kazimodo |
Italian poet and critic
|
Born in Modica, island of Sicily, (Italy) |
1958 |
Boris Pasternak |
Russian poet and storyteller
|
Russia |
1957 |
Alber Camu |
- |
- |
1956 |
Juan Ramón Jiménez |
Spanish poet
|
Born in Portorico (USA) |
1955 |
Haldor Kiljan Laxness |
Icelandic novelists
|
Iceland |
1954 |
Ernest Hemingway |
American storyteller
|
Oak Park, Illinois, US |
1953 |
Winston Churchill |
Awarded for Memoirs in 6 Volumes of World War II in English
|
Britain |
1952 |
François Mariac |
French novelist, poet and playwright
|
Bordid, France |
1951 |
Par Lagerquist |
Swedish novelist, poet and playwright
|
Sweden |
1950 |
Bertrand Russell |
British philosopher, mathematician and author
|
Britain |
1949 |
William Faulkner |
An American writer and poet
|
America |
1948 |
TS Eliot |
British poet-writer
|
Born in america |
1947 |
André Jide |
French novelist and essayist
|
France |
1946 |
Hermann Hess |
Storyteller and poet
|
Europe |
1945 |
Gabriela Mistral |
Chilean poetess; Awarded for Death Song Poetry
|
- |
1944 |
Johannes Jensen |
Danish novelist, poet, writer
|
Denmark |
1943 |
Awards not given |
- |
- |
1942 |
Awards not given |
- |
- |
1941 |
Awards not given |
- |
- |
1940 |
Awards not given |
- |
- |
1939 |
Emile Silampa |
Finland's only Nobel Laureate Novelist
|
Finland |
1938 |
Pearl S Buck |
American novelist
|
Born West Virginia |
1937 |
Rosé Martin du Gar |
Awarded for the French novel Le Thibalt
|
France; Born in Neuilly-Sir-Seine
|
1936 |
Eugene O'Neill |
American playwright
|
Born in new york |
1935 |
Award not given |
- |
- |
1934 |
Luizi Pirandello |
Italian storyteller and playwright
|
Italy |
1933 |
Ivan Bunin |
Russian poet and storyteller
|
Aryol, Varonezh, Russia |
1932 |
John Galzwardi |
British English novelist and playwright
|
England |
1931 |
Eric Axel Karlfelt |
Swedish poet
|
Sweden |
1930 |
Sinclair Lewis |
American English writers
|
Born in Jacques Santer (Minnesota) |
1929 |
Thomas Mann |
- |
- |
1928 |
Seagrid Underset |
Norwegian novelist
|
Norwegian; Born- in Kalendborg, Denmark |
1927 |
Henri Bergsan |
French philosopher
|
Born in France, Paris |
1926 |
Grazia Deleda |
italian novelist
|
Italy |
1925 |
George Bernard Shaw |
English language playwright
|
Born in Ireland, Dublin |
1924 |
Vladislav Remont |
Polish novelist
|
Poland |
1923 |
William Butler Yeats |
Playwright and poet
|
Ireland |
1922 |
Jacinto Benavente |
Spanish playwright
|
Spain |
1921 |
Anatole France |
French storyteller
|
France |
1920 |
Nat Hamson |
Norwegian novelist and playwright
|
Norwegian |
1919 |
Karl Spiteler |
German speaking
|
Switzerland |
1918 |
Award not given |
- |
- |
1917 |
Karl Adalf Gelerp + Heinrich Pontopidan |
Danish language storyteller and playwright/Danish storyteller
|
Denmark |
1916 |
Werner Heidenstamm |
Swedish poet
|
Sweden |
1915 |
Roman Rolland |
French language writer and playwright
|
France |
1914 |
Award not given |
- |
- |
1913 |
Rabindranath Tagore |
Bangla language
|
Calcutta, West Bengal, India |
1912 |
Gerhart Hauptmann |
- |
Ukraine |
1911 |
Maurice Matterlink |
Awarded as French Playwright
|
Belgium |
1910 |
Pal Heze |
German playwright and storyteller
|
Ukraine |
1909 |
Selma Lagerlöf |
Honored as a Swedish novelist
|
Sweden |
1908 |
Rudolph Christoph Euken |
Awarded for Philosophical Writing
|
Ukraine |
1907 |
Rudyard Kipling |
A British writer and poet
|
- |
1906 |
Giosue Carducci |
Italian language poet
|
- |
1905 |
Heinrich Sinkiewicz |
Polish |
- |
1904 |
Frederic Mistral / Jose Ikegare |
French (Provence) poet--Spanish playwright |
France--Spain |
1903 |
Byrnkhwerne Byrnsson |
Norwegian language
|
Norwegian |
1902 |
Mamson Matthias Theodore |
Awarded for writing the history of Rome
|
German |
1901 |
Sully Prudhomme |
First person to receive the prize in literature
|
France |
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