Nobel Laureates in Literature

YEAR	LAUREATE		COUNTRY	LANGUAGE	CITATION
2023		Jon Fosse	Norway	Norwegian	“for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”
2022		Annie Ernaux	France	French	"for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory"
2021		Abdulrazak Gurnah	Tanzania	English	"uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents"
2020		Louise Glück	United States	English	"her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal"
2019		Peter Handke	Austria	German	"for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."
2018 awarded in 2019		Olga Tokarczuk	Poland	Polish	“for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”
2017		Kazuo Ishiguro	Japan/England	English	"who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world"
2016		Bob Dylan	United States	English	"for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"
2015		Svetlana Alexievich	Belorus	Russian	"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time"
2014		Patrick Modiano	France	French	"for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation"
2013		Alice Munro	Canada	English	"master of the contemporary short story."
2012		Mo Yan	China	Chinese	"with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary."
2011		Tomas Tranströmer	Sweden	Swedish	"through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality."
2010		Mario Vargas Llosa	Peru/Spain	Spanish	"for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"
2009		Herta Müller	Germany/Romania	German	"who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"
2008		J. M. G. Le Clézio	France/Mauritius	French	"author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization"
2007		Doris Lessing	United Kingdom	English	"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"
2006		Orhan Pamuk	Turkey	Turkish	"who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures"
2005		Harold Pinter	United Kingdom	English	"who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms"
2004		Elfriede Jelinek	Austria	German	"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"
2003		J. M. Coetzee	South Africa	English	"who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider"
2002		Imre Kertész	Hungary	Hungarian	"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"
2001		V. S. Naipaul	United Kingdom/ Trinidad & Tobago	English	"for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories"
2000		Gao Xingjian	China (exiled to France)	Chinese	"for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama"
1999		Günter Grass	Germany	German	"whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history"
1998		José Saramago	Portugal	Portuguese	"who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality"
1997		Dario Fo	Italy	Italian	"who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden"
1996		Wisława Szymborska	Poland	Polish	"for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality"
1995		Seamus Heaney	Ireland	English	"for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past"
1994		Kenzaburō Ōe	Japan	Japanese	"who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today"
1993		Toni Morrison	United States	English	"who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"
1992		Derek Walcott	Saint Lucia	English	"for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment"
1991		Nadine Gordimer	South Africa	English	"who through her magnificent epic writing has — in the words of Alfred Nobel — been of very great benefit to humanity"
1990		Octavio Paz	Mexico	Spanish	"for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity"
1989		Camilo José Cela	Spain	Spanish	"for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability"
1988		Naguib Mahfouz	Egypt	Arabic	"who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind"
1987		Joseph Brodsky	Soviet Union/ United States	English & Russian	"for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity"
1986		Wole Soyinka	Nigeria	English	"who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence"
1985		Claude Simon	France	French	"who in his novel combines the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition"
1984		Jaroslav Seifert	Czechoslovakia	Czech	"for his poetry which endowed with freshness, and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man"
1983		William Golding	United Kingdom	English	"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"
1982		Gabriel García Márquez	Colombia	Spanish	"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"
1981		Elias Canetti	Bulgaria/ United Kingdom	German	"for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power"
1980		Czesław Miłosz	Poland/ United States	Polish	"who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts"
1979		Odysseas Elytis	Greece	Greek	"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"
1978		Isaac Bashevis Singer	United States	Yiddish	"for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life"
1977		Vicente Aleixandre	Spain	Spanish	"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"
1976		Saul Bellow	United States	English	"for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work"
1975		Eugenio Montale	Italy	Italian	"for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions"
1974 (2)		Eyvind Johnson	Sweden	Swedish	"for a narrative art, farseeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom"
		Harry Martinson	Sweden	Swedish	"for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos"
1973		Patrick White	Australia	English	"for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature"
1972		Heinrich Böll	Germany	German	"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"
1971		Pablo Neruda	Chile	Spanish	"for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams"
1970		Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn	Russia	Russian	"for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature"
1969		Samuel Beckett	Ireland	English & French	"for his writing, which — in new forms for the novel and drama — in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation"
1968		Kawabata Yasunari	Japan	Japanese	"for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind"
1967		Miguel Ángel Asturias	Guatemala	Spanish	"for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America"
1966 (2)		Shmuel Yosef Agnon	Israel	Hebrew	"for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people"
		Nelly Sachs	Germany (exiled to Sweden)	German	"for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength"
1965		Mikhail Sholokhov	Soviet Union	Russian	"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"
1964		Jean-Paul Sartre	France	French	"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"
1963		Giorgos Seferis	Greece	Greek	"for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture"
1962		John Steinbeck	United States	English	"for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception"
1961		Ivo Andrić	Yugoslavia	Serbo-Croatian	"for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country"
1960		Saint-John Perse	France	French	"for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time"
1959		Salvatore Quasimodo	Italy	Italian	"for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times"
1958		Boris Pasternak	Soviet Union	Russian	"for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition"
1957		Albert Camus	France	French	"for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times"
1956		Juan Ramón Jiménez	Spain	Spanish	"for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity"
1955		Halldór Laxness	Iceland	Icelandic	"for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland"
1954		Ernest Hemingway	United States	English	"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"
1953		Winston Churchill	United Kingdom	English	"for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values"
1952		François Mauriac	France	French	"for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life"
1951		Pär Lagerkvist	Sweden	Swedish	"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"
1950		Bertrand Russell	United Kingdom	English	"in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought"
1949		William Faulkner	United States	English	"for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel"
1948		T. S. Eliot	United Kingdom	English	"for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry"
1947		André Gide	France	French	"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"
1946		Hermann Hesse	Germany (exiled to Switzerland)	German	"for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style"
1945		Gabriela Mistral	Chile	Spanish	"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"
1944		Johannes Vilhelm Jensen	Denmark	Danish	"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"
1943	Not awarded
1942	Not awarded
1941	Not awarded
1940	Not awarded
1939		Frans Eemil Sillanpää	Finland	Finnish	"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"
1938		Pearl S. Buck	United States	English	"for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces"
1937		Roger Martin du Gard	France	French	"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"
1936		Eugene O'Neill	United States	English	"for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy"
1935	Not awarded
1934		Luigi Pirandello	Italy	Italian	"for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art"
1933		Ivan Bunin	Russia (exiled to France)	Russian	"for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing"
1932		John Galsworthy	United Kingdom	English	"for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga"
1931		Erik Axel Karlfeldt	Sweden	Swedish	"The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt"
1930		Sinclair Lewis	United States	English	"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters"
1929		Thomas Mann	Germany	German	"principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature"
1928		Sigrid Undset	Norway	Norwegian	"principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages"
1927		Henri Bergson	France	French	"in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented"
1926		Grazia Deledda	Italy	Italian	"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"
1925		George Bernard Shaw	Ireland	English	"for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty"
1924		Władysław Reymont	Poland	Polish	"for his great national epic, The Peasants"
1923		William Butler Yeats	Ireland	English	"for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation"
1922		Jacinto Benavente	Spain	Spanish	"for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama"
1921		Anatole France	France	French	"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"
1920		Knut Hamsun	Norway	Norwegian	"for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil"
1919		Carl Spitteler	Switzerland	German	"in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring"
1918	Not awarded
1917 (2)		Karl Adolph Gjellerup	Denmark	Danish	"for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals"
		Henrik Pontoppidan	Denmark	Danish	"for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark"
1916		Verner von Heidenstam	Sweden	Swedish	"in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature"
1915		Romain Rolland	France	French	"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"
1914	Not awarded
1913		Rabindranath Tagore	India	Bengali	"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"
1912		Gerhart Hauptmann	Germany	German	"primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art"
1911		Maurice Maeterlinck	Belgium	French	"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"
1910		Paul von Heyse	Germany	German	"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"
1909		Selma Lagerlöf	Sweden	Swedish	"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings"
1908		Rudolf Christoph Eucken	Germany	German	"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"
1907		Rudyard Kipling	United Kingdom	English	"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"
1906		Giosuè Carducci	Italy	Italian	"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"
1905		Henryk Sienkiewicz	Poland (Russian Empire)	Polish	"because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer"
1904 (2)		Frédéric Mistral	France	Occitan	"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	Spanish	"in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama"
1903		Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson	Norway	Norwegian	"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"
1902		Theodor Mommsen	Germany	German	"the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A History of Rome"
1901		Sully Prudhomme	France	French	"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."