Nobel Prize in Literature

Han Kang

Korea (the Republic of)

for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life

Jon Fosse

Norway

for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable

Annie Ernaux

France

for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory

Abdulrazak Gurnah

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Zanzibar, Tanzania, United Republic of)

for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents

Louise Glück

United States of America

for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal

Peter Handke

Austria

for an influential work that, with linguistic ingenuity, has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience

Olga Tokarczuk

Poland

for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life

Kazuo Ishiguro

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Japan)

for novels of great emotional force that uncover the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world

Bob Dylan

United States of America

for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition

Svetlana Alexievich

Belarus (Soviet Union)

for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time

Patrick Modiano

France

for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation

Alice Munro

Canada

for being a master of the contemporary short story

Mo Yan

China

for his work that, with hallucinatory realism, merges folk tales, history and the contemporary

Tomas Tranströmer

Sweden

because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality

Mario Vargas Llosa

Peru, Spain

for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat

Herta Müller

Germany (Romania)

who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

France, Mauritius

author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization

Doris Lessing

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe (Iran (Islamic Republic of))

that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny

Orhan Pamuk

Turkey

who, in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures

Harold Pinter

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

for plays that uncover the precipice beneath everyday prattle and force entry into oppression's closed rooms

Elfriede Jelinek

Austria

for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society’s clichés and their subjugating power

J. M. Coetzee

Australia, South Africa

for portraying, in innumerable guises, the surprising involvement of the outsider

Imre Kertész

Hungary

for pursuing the possibility of living and thinking as an individual in a time when people were compelled to submit to overwhelming social pressure

V. S. Naipaul

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Trinidad and Tobago)

for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories

Gao Xingjian

France, China

for an œuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama

Günter Grass

Germany

whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history

José Saramago

Portugal

who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality

Dario Fo

Italy

for emulating the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden

Wisława Szymborska

Poland

for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality

Seamus Heaney

Ireland

for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past

Kenzaburo Oe

Japan

who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today

Toni Morrison

United States of America

who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality

Derek Walcott

Saint Lucia

for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment

Nadine Gordimer

South Africa

who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity

Octavio Paz

Mexico

for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity

Camilo José Cela

Spain

for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability

Naguib Mahfouz

Egypt

who, through works rich in nuance – now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous – has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind

Joseph Brodsky

United States of America (Soviet Union)

for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity

Wole Soyinka

Nigeria

who, in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones, fashions the drama of existence

Claude Simon

France (Madagascar)

for novels that combine the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition

Jaroslav Seifert

Czechoslovakia (Austro-Hungarian Empire)

for his poetry which, endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness, provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man

William Golding

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today

Gabriel García Márquez

Colombia

for his novels and short stories in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts

Elias Canetti

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Bulgaria)

for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power

Czesław Miłosz

Poland

who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts

Odysseas Elytis

Greece

for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man's struggle for freedom and creativeness

Isaac Bashevis Singer

United States of America, Poland

for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life

Vicente Aleixandre

Spain

for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars

Saul Bellow

United States of America (Canada)

for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work

Eugenio Montale

Italy

for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions

Eyvind Johnson

Sweden

for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom

Harry Martinson

Sweden

for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos

Patrick White

Australia (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature

Heinrich Böll

Germany

for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature

Pablo Neruda

Chile

for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Soviet Union

for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature

Samuel Beckett

Ireland

for his writing, which – in new forms for the novel and drama – in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation

Yasunari Kawabata

Japan

for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind

Miguel Ángel Asturias

Guatemala

for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America

Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Israel (Hungary)

for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people

Nelly Sachs

Germany, Sweden (Germany)

for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength

Mikhail Sholokhov

Soviet Union

for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people

Jean-Paul Sartre

France

for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age

Giorgos Seferis

Kingdom of Greece (Ottoman Empire)

for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture

John Steinbeck

United States of America

for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception

Ivo Andrić

Yugoslavia (Austro-Hungarian Empire)

for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country

Saint-John Perse

France (Guadeloupe)

for the soaring flight and evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time

Salvatore Quasimodo

Italy

for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times

Boris Pasternak

Soviet Union

for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition

Albert Camus

France (French Algeria)

for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Spain

for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistic purity

Halldór Laxness

Iceland

for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland

Ernest Hemingway

United States of America

for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style

Winston Churchill

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values

François Mauriac

France

for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life

Pär Lagerkvist

Sweden

for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind

Bertrand Russell

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought

William Faulkner

United States of America

for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel

T. S. Eliot

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (United States of America)

for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry

André Gide

France

for his comprehensive and artistically significant writings, in which human problems and conditions have been presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight

Hermann Hesse

Germany, Switzerland (Germany)

for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style

Gabriela Mistral

Chile

for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world

Johannes Vilhelm Jensen

Denmark

for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style

Frans Eemil Sillanpää

Finland

for his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature

Pearl S. Buck

United States of America

for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces

Roger Martin du Gard

France

for the artistic power and truth with which he has depicted human conflict as well as some fundamental aspects of contemporary life in his novel-cycle "Les Thibault"

Eugene O'Neill

United States of America

for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy

Luigi Pirandello

Italy

for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art

Ivan Bunin

Russian Federation (Russian Empire)

for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing

John Galsworthy

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga

Erik Axel Karlfeldt

Sweden

for the poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt

Sinclair Lewis

United States of America

for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters

Thomas Mann

Germany

principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature

Sigrid Undset

Norway (Denmark)

principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages

Henri Bergson

France

in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented

Grazia Deledda

Italy

for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general

George Bernard Shaw

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ireland (Ireland)

for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty

Władysław Reymont

Poland

for his great national epic, "The Peasants"

William Butler Yeats

Ireland

for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation

Jacinto Benavente

Spain

for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama

Anatole France

France

in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament

Knut Hamsun

Norway

for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil

Carl Spitteler

Switzerland

in special appreciation of his epic, 'Olympian Spring'

Karl Adolph Gjellerup

Denmark

for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals

Henrik Pontoppidan

Denmark

for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark

Verner von Heidenstam

Sweden

in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature

Romain Rolland

France

as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings

Rabindranath Tagore

British Indian Empire

because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West

Gerhart Hauptmann

Germany

primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art

Maurice Maeterlinck

Belgium

in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations

Paul von Heyse

Germany

as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories

Selma Lagerlöf

Sweden

in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings

Rudolf Christoph Eucken

Germany

in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life

Rudyard Kipling

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author

Giosuè Carducci

Italy

not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Poland

for his outstanding merits as an epic writer

Frédéric Mistral

France

in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist

José Echegaray

Spain

in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Norway

as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit

Theodor Mommsen

Germany

the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A History of Rome

Sully Prudhomme

France

in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect