HomeAward WinnersList Of All Nobel Prize Winners In Literature (2024 Updated)
List Of All Nobel Prize Winners In Literature (2024 Updated)
Last Updated: 6 March 2024
Did you know that the Nobel Prize Award name was taken from Alfred Nobel’s Surname? Yes, you heard it right! Before we get into the list of Nobel Prizes in Literature, let’s have a quick intro about this Award.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded every year by the Swedish Academy to authors for outstanding contributions to the field of literature.
Nobel Prize in Literature is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel who died in 1896, awarded for outstanding contributions in Chemistry, Physics, Literature, Peace, & Physiology or Medicine. As dictated by Nobel’s will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by the Swedish Academy.
The Award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. Each recipient receives a Gold Medal, a Diploma bearing Citation, and a Monetary Award Prize that has varied throughout the years.
Page Contents
Nobel Laureates By Country
No.
#
Country
Laurates
1
France
16
2
United States
13
3
United Kingdom
11
4
Germany
9
5
Sweden
8
6
Poland
6
7
Spain
6
8
Italy
6
9
Ireland
4
10
Russia/USSR
4
11
Denmark
3
12
Norway
4
13
Austria
2
14
Chile
2
15
Greece
2
16
Japan
2
17
South Africa
2
18
Switzerland
2
19
Australia
1
20
Belarus
1
21
Belgium
1
22
Bulgaria
1
23
Canada
1
24
China
1
25
Colombia
1
26
Czechoslovakia
1
27
Egypt
1
28
Finland
1
29
Guatemala
1
30
Hungary
1
31
Iceland
1
32
India
1
33
Israel
1
34
Mauritius
1
35
Mexico
1
36
Nigeria
1
37
Peru
1
38
Portugal
1
39
Romania
1
40
Saint Lucia
1
41
Tanzania
1
42
Turkey
1
43
Yugoslavia
1
44
X
Stateless
1
Interesting Facts About Nobel Prize Winners In Literature
The Nobel Prize Medals in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, And Physiology or Medicine are identical on the face. It shows the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death (1833-1896).
The first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1901 to Sully Prudhomme of France.
A total of 119 Nobel Awards have been awarded in Literature between 1901 and 2022. Out of 119 Laureates, 102 are Males and 17 are Females.
English (29) is the only language where Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded the most while French (16) is the second and German (14) is the third.
Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel Prize in Literature 1913) wrote in Bengali and English, Samuel Beckett (Nobel Prize in Literature 1969) wrote in French and English, and Joseph Brodsky (Nobel Prize in Literature 1987) wrote poetry in Russian and prose in English. These three Nobel laureates have been sorted under Bengali, French, and Russian.
Karl Adolph Gjellerup (Nobel Prize in Literature 1917) wrote in Danish and German.
In 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to two recipients, since then two recipients together in a single year were awarded again in 1917.
The youngest laureate to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature was Rudyard Kipling, who was 41 years old when he was awarded in 1907. The oldest laureate to receive the prize was Doris Lessing, who was 88 when she was awarded in 2007.
Russian-born Boris Pasternak received the award in 1958 but was forced to publicly reject the award under pressure from the government of the Soviet Union.
Seventeen women have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the second-highest number of any of the Nobel Prizes behind the Nobel Peace Prize.
There have been four instances in which the award was given to two people (1904, 1917, 1966, 1974) while there have been seven years in which the Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded (1914, 1918, 1935, 1940–1943).
Here is the list of Nobel Prize Winners In Literature from 1901 to 2022.
Nobel Prize Winners (2020-2029)
2023
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Jon Fosse
Norway
Norwegian
Drama, Novel, Poetry, Essay
For his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable
2022
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Annie Ernaux
France
French
Autobiography, Novel
For the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements, and collective restraints of personal memory
2021
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Tanzania + United Kingdom
English
Novel
Uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents
2020
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Louise Glück
United States
English
Poetry, Essay
Her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal
Who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed
2008
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
France + Mauritius
French
Novel, Short Story, Essay, Translation
Author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization
2007
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Doris Lessing
United Kingdom + Zimbabwe
English
Novel, Drama, Poetry, Short Story, Memoirs, Autobiography
Epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire, and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny
2006
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Orhan Pamuk
Turkey
Turkish
Novel, Screenplay, Autobiography, Essay
Who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures
2005
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Harold Pinter
United Kingdom
English
Drama, Screenplay
Who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms
2004
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Elfriede Jelinek
Austria
German
Novel, Drama
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
John Maxwell Coetzee
Australia + South Africa
English
Novel, Essay, Translation
Who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider
2002
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Imre Kertész
Hungary
Hungarian
Novel
Writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history
2001
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul
United Kingdom
English
Novel, Essay
Having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories
2000
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Gao Xingjian
France + China (1940–1998)
Chinese
Novel, Drama, Literary Criticism
An oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights, and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama
Rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man’s vulnerability
1988
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Naguib Mahfouz
Egypt
Arabic
Novel, Short Story
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Joseph Brodsky
United States
Russian, English
Poetry, Essay
An all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity
1986
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Wole Soyinka
Nigeria
English
Who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence
Drama, Novel, Poetry, Screenplay
1985
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Claude Simon
France
French
Novel, Literary Criticism
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Jaroslav Seifert
Czechoslovakia
Czech
Poetry
His poetry, which is endowed with freshness, and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man
1983
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
William Golding
United Kingdom
English
Novel, Poetry, Drama
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Gabriel García Márquez
Colombia
Spanish
Novel, Short Story, Screenplay
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Elias Canetti
United Kingdom
German
Novel, Drama, Memoirs, Essay
Writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas, and artistic power
1980
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Czesław Miłosz
Poland
Polish
Poetry, Essay
Who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man’s exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Isaac Bashevis Singer
United States + Poland
Yiddish
Novel, Short Story, Memoirs
His impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life
1977
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Vicente Aleixandre
Spain
Spanish
Poetry
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Saul Bellow
United States
English
Novel, Short Story
Human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work
1975
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Eugenio Montale
Italy
Italian
Poetry
His distinctive poetry, which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions
1974
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Eyvind Johnson
Sweden
Swedish
Novel
A narrative art, farseeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom
Harry Martinson
Sweden
Swedish
Poetry, Novel, Drama
Writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos
1973
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Patrick White
Australia
English
Novel, Short Story, Drama
An epic and psychological narrative art, which has introduced a new continent into literature
1972
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Heinrich Böll
West Germany
German
Novel, Short Story
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Pablo Neruda
Chile
Spanish
Poetry
Poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams
1970
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Soviet Union
Russian
Novel
The ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature
His lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times
1958
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Boris Pasternak
Soviet Union
Russian
Novel, Poetry, Translation
His important achievements both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition
1957
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Albert Camus
France
French
Novel, Short Story, Drama, Philosophy, Essay
His important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times
1956
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Spain
Spanish
Poetry
His lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity
1955
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Halldór Laxness
Iceland
Icelandic
Novel, Short Story, Drama, Poetry
His vivid epic power, which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland
1954
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Ernest Hemingway
United States
English
Novel, Short Story, Screenplay
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Winston Churchill
United Kingdom
English
History, Essay, Memoirs
His mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values
1952
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
François Mauriac
France
French
Novel, Short Story
The deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life
1951
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Pär Lagerkvist
Sweden
Swedish
Poetry, Novel, Short Story, Drama
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Bertrand Russell
United Kingdom
English
Philosophy
In recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought
His powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel
1948
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Thomas Stearns Eliot
United Kingdom
English
Poetry
For his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry
1947
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
André Gide
France
French
Novel, Essay
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Hermann Hesse
Germany + Switzerland
German
Novel, Poetry
His inspired writings, which while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style
1945
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Gabriela Mistral
Chile
Spanish
Poetry
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
Denmark
Danish
Novel, Short Story
Rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Pearl Buck
United States
English
Novel, Biography
Her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces
1937
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Roger Martin du Gard
France
French
Novel
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Eugene O’Neill
United States
English
Drama
The power, honesty, and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy
1934
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Luigi Pirandello
Italy
Italian
Drama, Novel, Short Story
His bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art
1933
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Ivan Bunin
Stateless (Born in Russian Empire)
Russian
Short Story, Poetry, Novel
The strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing
1932
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
John Galsworthy
United Kingdom
English
Novel
His distinguished art of narration, which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga
1931
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Erik Axel Karlfeldt
Sweden
Swedish
Poetry
The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1930
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Sinclair Lewis
United States
English
Novel, Short Story, Drama
His vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters
Principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature
1928
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Sigrid Undset
Norway + Denmark
Norwegian, Danish
Novel
Principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages
1927
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Henri Bergson
France
French
Philosophy
Recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented
1926
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Grazia Deledda
Italy
Italian
Poetry, Novel
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
George Bernard Shaw
UK + Ireland
English
Drama, Literary Criticism
His work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty
1924
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Władysław Reymont
Poland
Polish
Novel
His great national epic, The Peasants
1923
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
William Butler Yeats
Ireland
English
Poetry
Always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation
1922
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Jacinto Benavente
Spain
Spanish
Drama
The happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama
1921
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Anatole France
France
French
Novel, Poetry
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
His varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals
Henrik Pontoppidan
Denmark
Danish
Novel
His authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark
1916
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Verner von Heidenstam
Sweden
Swedish
Poetry, Novel
Recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature
1915
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Romain Rolland
France
French
Novel
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
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Gerhart Hauptmann
Germany
German
Drama, Novel
Primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied, and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art
1911
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Maurice Maeterlinck
Belgium
French
Drama, Poetry, Essay
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 mysteriously they appeal to the readers’ feelings and stimulate their imaginations
1910
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Paul von Heyse
Germany
German
Poetry, Drama, Novel, Short Story
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
Appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination, and spiritual perception that characterize her writings
1908
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Rudolf Christoph Eucken
Germany
German
Philosophy
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Rudyard Kipling
United Kingdom
English
Novel, Short Story, Poetry
Consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas, and remarkable talent for narration that characterize the creations of this world-famous author”
1906
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Giosuè Carducci
Italy
Italian
Poetry
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Poland
Polish
Novel
Because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer
1904
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Frédéric Mistral
France
Provençal
Poetry, Philology
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
Drama
Recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama
1903
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Norway
Norwegian
Poetry, Novel, Drama
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
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Theodor Mommsen
Germany
German
History, Law
Greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work A History of Rome
1901
Recipient
Citizenship
Language
Genre
Citation
Sully Prudhomme
France
French
Poetry, Essay
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
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