Nobel Prize in Literature

Year	Laureate	Reason
2022	Annie Ernaux	“for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”
2021	Abdulrazak Gurnah	“for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”
2020	Louise Gluck	“for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”
2019	Peter Handke	“for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience”
2018	Olga Tokarczuk	“for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”
2017	Kazuo Ishiguro	“who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”
2016	Bob Dylan	“for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”
2015	Svetlana Alexievich	“for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”
2014	Patrick Modiano	“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	“master of the contemporary short story”
2012	Mo Yan	“who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”
2011	Thomas Transtromer	“because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality”
2010	Mario Vargas Llosa	“for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat”
2009	Herta Muller	“who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed”
2008	Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio	“author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization”
2007	Doris Lessing	“that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny”
2006	Orhan Pamuk	“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	“who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”
2004	Elfriede Jelinek	“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	John M. Coetzee	“who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider”
2002	Imre Kertesz	“for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history”
2001	Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul	“for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories”
2000	Gao Xingjian	“for an æuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama”
1999	Gunter Grass	“whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history”
1998	Jose Saramago	“who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality”
1997	Dario Fo	“who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden”
1996	Wislawa Szymborska	“for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality”
1995	Seamus Heaney	“for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past”
1994	Kenzaburo Oe	“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	“who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality”
1992	Derek Walcott	“for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment”
1991	Nadime Gordimer	“who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity”
1990	Octavio Paz	“for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity”
1989	Camilo Jose Cela	“for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man’s vulnerability”
1988	Naguib Mahfouz	“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	“for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity”
1986	Wole Soyinka	“who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence”
1985	Claude Simon	“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	“for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man”
1983	William Golding	“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 Garcia Marquez	“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	“for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power”
1980	Czeslaw Milosz	“who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man’s exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts”
1979	Odysseus Elytis	“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	“for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life”
1977	Vicente Aleixandre	“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	“for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work”
1975	Eugenio Montale	“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	Eyvind Johnson	“for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom”
	Harry Martinson	“for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos”
1973	Patrick White	“for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature”
1972	Heinrich Boll	“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	“for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams”
1970	Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn	“for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”
1969	Samuel Beckett	“for his writing, which – in new forms for the novel and drama – in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”
1968	Yasunari Kawabata	“for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind”
1967	Miguel Angel Asturias	“for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America”
1966	Shmuel Yosef Agnon	“for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people”
	Nelly Sachs	“for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel’s destiny with touching strength”
1965	Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov	“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	“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	“for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture”
1962	John Steinbeck	“for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception”
1961	Ivo Andric	“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	“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	“for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times”
1958	Boris Leonidovich Pasternak	“for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition”
1957	Albert Camus	“for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times”
1956	Juan Ramon Jimenez	“for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity”
1955	Halldor Kiljan Laxness	“for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland”
1954	Ernest Miller Hemingway	“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	Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill	“for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values”
1952	Francois Mauriac	“for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life”
1951	Par Fabian Lagerkvist	“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	Earl (Bertrand Arthur William) Russell	“in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought”
1949	William Faulkner	“for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel”
1948	Thomas Stearns Eliot	“for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry”
1947	Andre Paul Guillaume Gide	“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	Herman Hesse	“for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style”
1945	Gabriela Mistral	“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	“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	No Nobel Prize awarded
1942	No Nobel Prize awarded
1941	No Nobel Prize awarded
1940	No Nobel Prize awarded
1939	Frans Eemil Sillanpaa	“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 Buck	“for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces”
1937	Roger Martin du Gard	“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 Gladstone O’Neill	“for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy”
1935	No Nobel Prize awarded
1934	Luigi Pirandello	“for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art”
1933	Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin	“for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing”
1932	John Galsworthy	“for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga“
1931	Erik Axel Karlfeldt	“The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt”
1930	Sinclair Lewis	“for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters”
1929	Thomas Mann	“principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature”
1928	Sigrid Undset	“principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages”
1927	Henri Bergson	“in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented”
1926	Grazia Deledda	“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	“for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty”
1924	Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont	“for his great national epic, The Peasants“
1923	William Butler Yeats	“for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation”
1922	Jacinto Benavente	“for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama”
1921	Anatole 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”
1920	Knut Pedersen Hamsun	“for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil“
1919	Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler	“in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring“
1918	No Nobel Prize awarded
1917	Karl Adolph Gjellerup	“for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals”
	Henrik Pontoppidan	“for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark”
1916	Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam	“in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature”
1915	Romain Rolland	“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	No Nobel Prize awarded
1913	Rabindranath Tagore	“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 Johann Robert Hauptmann	“primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art”
1911	Count Maurice (Mooris) Polidore Marie Bernhard Maeterlinck	“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 Johann Ludwig Heyse	“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 Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlof	“in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings”
1908	Rudolf Christoph Eucken	“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	“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	Giosue Carducci	“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	“because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer”
1904	Frederich Mistral	“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”
	Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre	“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	Bjornstjerne Martinus Bjornson	“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	Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen	“the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A history of Rome“
1901	Sully Prudhomme	“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”