List of Nobel laureates in Literature

File:Mats Malm on the Nobel Prize in Literature 2022.jpg

Mats Malm, the current permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, announcing the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Nobel Prize in Literature (Swedish: Nobelpriset i litteratur) is awarded annually by the Swedish Academy to authors for outstanding contributions in the field of literature. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, which are awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine. As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by the Swedish Academy. Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a monetary award prize that has varied throughout the years. In 1901, the first laureate Sully Prudhomme received 150,782 SEK, which is equivalent to 8,823,637.78 SEK in January 2018. The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. As of 2024, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to 121 individuals. 18 women have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the second highest number of any of the Nobel Prizes behind the Nobel Peace Prize. As of 2024, there have been 29 English-speaking laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature, followed by French with 16 laureates and German with 14 laureates. France has the highest number of Nobel laureates.

Laureates

Year	Picture	Laureate	Country	Language(s)	Citation	Genre(s)
1901	File:Sully-Prudhomme (cropped).jpg	Sully Prudhomme (1839–1907)	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"	poetry, essay
1902	File:Theodor Mommsen 2 (cropped).jpg	Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903)	Germany	German	"the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work A History of Rome"	history, law
1903	File:Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (cropped).jpg	Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910)	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"	poetry, novel, drama
1904	File:Portrait frederic mistral (cropped).jpg	Frédéric Mistral (1830–1914)	France	Provençal	"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"	poetry, philology
	File:José Echegaray y Eizaguirre (cropped2).jpg	José Echegaray (1832–1916)	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"	drama
1905	File:Henryk Sienkiewicz 1905.jpg	Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846–1916)	Poland	Polish	"because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer"	novel
1906	File:Giosuè Carducci2 (cropped).jpg	Giosuè Carducci (1835–1907)	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"	poetry
1907	File:Rudyard Kipling (portrait).jpg	Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936)	United Kingdom	English	"in 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"	novel, short story, poetry
1908	File:Eucken-im-Alter.png	Rudolf Christoph Eucken (1846–1926)	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"	philosophy
1909	File:Selma Lagerlöf (cropped2).jpg	Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940)	Sweden	Swedish	"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings"	novel, short story
1910	File:Paul Heyse 1910.jpg	Paul von Heyse (1830–1914)	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"	poetry, drama, novel, short story
1911	File:Maurice de Maeterlinck (cropped).jpg	Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949)	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"	drama, poetry, essay
1912	File:Gerhart Hauptmann nobel.jpg	Gerhart Hauptmann (1862–1946)	Germany	German	"primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art"	drama, novel
1913	File:Tagore3.jpg	Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941)	India (British Raj)	Bengali and English	"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"	poetry, novel, drama, short story, essay, translation
1914	Not awarded
1915	File:Romain Rolland 1915.jpg	Romain Rolland (1866–1944)	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"	novel
1916	File:Verner von Heidenstam in the 1890s.jpg	Verner von Heidenstam (1859–1940)	Sweden	Swedish	"in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature"	poetry, novel
1917	File:Karl Gjellerup.jpg	Karl Adolph Gjellerup (1857–1919)	Denmark	Danish and German	"for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals"	poetry
	File:Henrik Pontoppidan 1917.jpg	Henrik Pontoppidan (1857–1943)	Denmark	Danish	"for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark"	novel
1918	Not awarded
1919	File:Carl Spitteler 1919.jpg	Carl Spitteler (1845–1924)	Switzerland	German	"in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring"	poetry
1920	File:Hamsun bldsa HA0341.jpg	Knut Hamsun (1859–1952)	Norway	Norwegian	"for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil"	novel
1921	File:Anatole France 1921 (cropped).jpg	Anatole France (1844–1924)	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"	novel, poetry
1922	File:Jacinto Benavente y Martinez.jpg	Jacinto Benavente (1866–1954)	Spain	Spanish	"for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama"	drama
1923	File:Yeats1923.jpg	William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)	Ireland	English	"for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation"	poetry
1924	File:Wladyslaw Reymont 1924.jpg	Władysław Reymont (1867–1925)	Poland	Polish	"for his great national epic, The Peasants"	novel
1925	File:George Bernard Shaw 1934-12-06.jpg	George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)	United Kingdom Ireland	English	"for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty"	drama, essay
1926	File:Grazia Deledda 1926.jpg	Grazia Deledda (1871–1936)	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"	poetry, novel
1927	File:Bergson-Nobel-photo.jpg	Henri Bergson (1859–1941)	France	French	"in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented"	philosophy
1928	File:Sigrid Undset 1928.jpg	Sigrid Undset (1882–1949)	Norway Denmark	Norwegian	"principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages"	novel
1929	File:Thomas Mann 1929.jpg	Thomas Mann (1875–1955)	Germany	German	"principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature"	novel, short story, essay
1930	File:Sinclair Lewis 1930.jpg	Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951)	United States	English	"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters"	novel, short story, drama
1931	File:Erik Axel Karlfeldt 1931.jpg	Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1864–1931)	Sweden	Swedish	"The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt"	poetry
1932	File:John Galsworthy 2.jpg	John Galsworthy (1867–1933)	United Kingdom	English	"for his distinguished art of narration, which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga"	novel
1933	File:Ivan Bunin 1933.jpg	Ivan Bunin (1870–1953)	Stateless (born in Russian Empire)	Russian	"for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing"	short story, poetry, novel
1934	File:Luigi Pirandello 1932.jpg	Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936)	Italy	Italian	"for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art"	drama, novel, short story
1935	Not awarded
1936	File:Eugene O'Neill 1936.jpg	Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953)	United States	English	"for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy"	drama
1937	File:Roger Martin du Gard 1937.jpg	Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958)	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"	novel
1938	File:Pearl Buck (Nobel).jpg	Pearl Buck (1892–1973)	United States	English	"for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces"	novel, biography
1939	File:FransEemilSillanpää.jpg	Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964)	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"	novel
1940	Not awarded
1941	Not awarded
1942	Not awarded
1943	Not awarded
1944	File:Johannes Vilhelm Jensen 1944.jpg	Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950)	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"	novel, short story
1945	File:Gabriela Mistral 1945.jpg	Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957)	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"	poetry
1946	File:Hermann Hesse 1946.jpg	Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)	Germany Switzerland	German	"for his inspired writings, which while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style"	novel, poetry
1947	File:André Gide.jpg	André Gide (1869–1951)	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"	novel, essay, drama, memoir
1948	File:TS Eliot.jpg	Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965)	United Kingdom (born in the United States)	English	"for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry"	poetry, essay, drama
1949	File:Carl Van Vechten - William Faulkner (greyscale and cropped).jpg	William Faulkner (1897–1962)	United States	English	"for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel"	novel, short story
1950	File:Bertrand Russell 1954.jpg	Bertrand Russell (1872–1970)	United Kingdom	English	"in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought"	philosophy, essay
1951	File:Lagerkvist.jpg	Pär Lagerkvist (1891–1974)	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"	poetry, novel, short story, drama
1952	File:François Mauriac 1952.jpg	François Mauriac (1885–1970)	France	French	"for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life"	novel, short story
1953	File:Winston Churchill cph.3a49758.jpg	Winston Churchill (1874–1965)	United Kingdom	English	"for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values"	history, essay, memoir
1954	File:ErnestHemingway (cropped).jpg	Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)	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"	novel, short story, screenplay
1955	File:Halldór Kiljan Laxness 1955.jpg	Halldór Laxness (1902–1998)	Iceland	Icelandic	"for his vivid epic power, which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland"	novel, short story, drama, poetry
1956	File:JRJimenez.JPG	Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881–1958)	Spain	Spanish	"for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity"	poetry, novel
1957	File:Camus Harcourt 1945.jpg	Albert Camus (1913–1960)	France (born in French Algeria)	French	"for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times"	novel, short story, drama, philosophy, essay
1958	File:Boris Pasternak 1969.jpg	Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)	Soviet Union	Russian	"for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition"	novel, poetry, translation
1959	File:Salvatore Quasimodo 1959.jpg	Salvatore Quasimodo (1901–1968)	Italy	Italian	"for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times"	poetry
1960	File:Saint-John Perse 1960.jpg	Saint-John Perse (1887–1975)	France (born in Guadeloupe)	French	"for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry, which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time"	poetry
1961	File:S. Kragujevic, Ivo Andric, 1961.jpg	Ivo Andrić (1892–1975)	Yugoslavia (born in Austria-Hungary)	Serbo-Croatian	"for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country"	novel, short story
1962	File:John Steinbeck 1939 (cropped).jpg	John Steinbeck (1902–1968)	United States	English	"for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception"	novel, short story, screenplay
1963	File:Giorgos Seferis 1963.jpg	Giorgos Seferis (1900–1971)	Greece (born in the Ottoman Empire)	Greek	"for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture"	poetry, essay, memoir
1964	File:Jean Paul Sartre 1965.jpg	Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980)	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"	philosophy, novel, drama, essay, short story, screenplay
1965	File:Mikhail Sholokhov 1960.jpg	Mikhail Sholokhov (1905–1984)	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"	novel
1966	File:Agnon.jpg	Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888–1970)	Israel (born in Austria-Hungary)	Hebrew	"for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people"	novel, short story
	File:Nelly Sachs 1966.jpg	Nelly Sachs (1891–1970)	West Germany Sweden	German	"for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength"	poetry, drama
1967	File:Miguel Angel Asturias.jpg	Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899–1974)	Guatemala	Spanish	"for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America"	novel, poetry
1968	File:Yasunari Kawabata 1968 cropped.jpg	Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972)	Japan	Japanese	"for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind"	novel, short story
1969	File:Samuel Beckett, Pic, 1 (cropped).jpg	Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)	Ireland	French and English	"for his writing, which – in new forms for the novel and drama – in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation"	novel, drama, poetry
1970	File:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1974crop.jpg	Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008)	Soviet Union	Russian	"for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature"	novel, essay, short story
1971	File:Pablo Neruda 1963.jpg	Pablo Neruda (1904–1973)	Chile	Spanish	"for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams"	poetry
1972	File:Heinrich Böll (1983).jpg	Heinrich Böll (1917–1985)	West 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"	novel, short story
1973	File:Patrick White 1973.jpg	Patrick White (1912–1990)	Australia (born in the United Kingdom)	English	"for an epic and psychological narrative art, which has introduced a new continent into literature"	novel, short story, drama
1974	File:Eyvind.JPG	Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976)	Sweden	Swedish	"for a narrative art, farseeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom"	novel
	File:Harry Martinson 001.tiff	Harry Martinson (1904–1978)	Sweden	Swedish	"for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos"	poetry, novel, drama
1975	File:Eugenio montale 2.jpg	Eugenio Montale (1896–1981)	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"	poetry
1976	File:Saul Bellow (Herzog portrait) (cropped).jpg	Saul Bellow (1915–2005)	United States (born in Canada)	English	"for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work"	novel, short story
1977	File:Vicentealeixandre.jpg	Vicente Aleixandre (1898–1984)	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"	poetry
1978	File:Dan Hadani collection (990044399930205171) (cropped).jpg	Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991)	United States Poland	Yiddish	"for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life"	novel, short story, memoir
1979	File:Odysseas Elytis 1974 (cropped).jpg	Odysseas Elytis (1911–1996)	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"	poetry, essay
1980	File:Czeslaw Milosz 3 ap (cropped).tif	Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004)	Poland (born in Russian Empire)	Polish	"who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts"	poetry, novel, essay
1981	File:Elias Canetti 2 (cropped).jpg	Elias Canetti (1905–1994)	United Kingdom Bulgaria	German	"for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power"	novel, drama, memoirs, essay
1982	File:Gabriel García Márquez 02 (cropped).jpg	Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014)	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"	novel, short story, screenplay
1983	File:William Golding 1983 (cropped).jpg	William Golding (1911–1993)	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"	novel, poetry, drama
1984	File:Jaroslav Seifert 1981 foto Hana Hamplová (cropped).jpg	Jaroslav Seifert (1901–1986)	Czechoslovakia (born in Austria-Hungary)	Czech	"for his poetry, which endowed with freshness, and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man"	poetry
1985	File:Claude Simon 1967 (cropped).jpg	Claude Simon (1913–2005)	France (born in French Madagascar)	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"	novel, essay
1986	File:CDH - Comissão de Direitos Humanos e Legislação Participativa (20225202233) (cropped).jpg	Wole Soyinka (b. 1934)	Nigeria	English	"who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence"	drama, novel, poetry, screenplay
1987	File:Иосиф Бродский (cropped).jpg	Joseph Brodsky (1940–1996)	United States Soviet Union	Russian and English	"for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity"	poetry, essay
1988	File:Nagib Mahfouz.jpg	Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006)	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"	novel, short story
1989	File:Gaspar Sánchez Salas y Camilo José Cela (cropped).jpg	Camilo José Cela (1916–2002)	Spain	Spanish	"for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability"	novel, short story, essay, poetry
1990	File:Octavio Paz 1984 (colorized) (cropped).jpg	Octavio Paz (1914–1998)	Mexico	Spanish	"for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity"	poetry, essay
1991	File:Nadine Gordimer 01 (cropped).JPG	Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014)	South Africa	English	"who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity"	novel, short story, essay, drama
1992	File:Derek Walcott.jpg	Derek Walcott (1930–2017)	Saint Lucia	English	"for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment"	poetry, drama
1993	File:Toni Morrison (cropped).jpg	Toni Morrison (1931–2019)	United States	English	"who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"	novel, essay
1994	File:Oe kenzaburo japaninstitut koeln 041108 (cropped).jpg	Kenzaburō Ōe (1935–2023)	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"	novel, short story, essay
1995	File:Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, brightened (cropped 02).jpg	Seamus Heaney (1939–2013)	Ireland	English	"for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past"	poetry, drama, translation, essay
1996	File:Szymborska 2011 (cropped).jpg	Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012)	Poland	Polish	"for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality"	poetry, essay, translation
1997	File:Dario Fo-(Credit-ph--Paul-de-Grauve).jpg	Dario Fo (1926–2016)	Italy	Italian	"who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden"	drama, song lyrics
1998	File:Jo-Sa (cropped).jpg	José Saramago (1922–2010)	Portugal	Portuguese	"who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality"	novel, drama, poetry
1999	File:Günter Grass auf dem Blauen Sofa (cropped2).jpg	Günter Grass (1927–2015)	Germany (born in Free City of Danzig)	German	"whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history"	novel, drama, poetry, essay
2000	File:Gao Xingjian (2012, cropped).jpg	Gao Xingjian (b. 1940)	France China	Chinese	"for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama"	novel, drama, essay
2001	File:VS Naipaul 2016 Dhaka (cropped).jpg	Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (1932–2018)	United Kingdom Trinidad and Tobago	English	"for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories"	novel, essay
2002	File:Imre Kertész (cropped).JPG	Imre Kertész (1929–2016)	Hungary	Hungarian	"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"	novel
2003	File:J.M. Coetzee (cropped).JPG	John Maxwell Coetzee (b. 1940)	South Africa	English	"who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider"	novel, essay, translation
2004	File:Elfriede jelinek 2004 small (cropped).jpg	Elfriede Jelinek (b. 1946)	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"	novel, drama
2005	File:Pinterfoto (cropped).jpg	Harold Pinter (1930–2008)	United Kingdom	English	"who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms"	drama, screenplay, poetry
2006	File:Orhan Pamuk in Rustaveli Theatre, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2014 (cropped).jpg	Orhan Pamuk (b. 1952)	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"	novel, screenplay, autobiography, essay
2007	File:Dorisa Lesinga (cropped).JPG	Doris Lessing (1919–2013)	United Kingdom (born in Iran)	English	"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"	novel, short story, memoir/ autobiography, drama, poetry, essay
2008	File:Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (cropped).jpg	Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (b. 1940)	France Mauritius	French	"author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization"	novel, short story, essay, translation
2009	File:Herta Müller Literaturfest München 2016 (cropped).jpg	Herta Müller (b. 1953)	Germany Romania	German	"who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"	novel, short story, poetry, essay
2010	File:Mario Vargas Llosa (cropped2).jpg	Mario Vargas Llosa (b. 1936)	Peru Spain	Spanish	"for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"	novel, short story, essay, drama, memoir
2011	File:Transtroemer (cropped).jpg	Tomas Tranströmer (1931–2015)	Sweden	Swedish	"because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality"	poetry, translation
2012	File:MoYan Hamburg 2008 (cropped).jpg	Mo Yan (b. 1955)	China	Chinese	"who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary"	novel, short story
2013	File:Alice Munro 2006 (cropped1).jpg	Alice Munro (1931–2024)	Canada	English	"master of the contemporary short story"	short story
2014	File:Patrick Modiano 6 dec 2014 - 19 (cropped).jpg	Patrick Modiano (b. 1945)	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"	novel, screenplay
2015	File:Світлана Алексієвич (Київ, 2016) 08 (cropped2).JPG	Svetlana Alexievich (b. 1948)	Belarus (born in Soviet Ukraine)	Russian	"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time"	history, essay
2016	File:Bob Dylan - Azkena Rock Festival 2010 1 (cropped2).jpg	Bob Dylan (b. 1941)	United States	English	"for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"	poetry, song lyrics
2017	File:Kazuo Ishiguro in 2017 13 (cropped).jpg	Kazuo Ishiguro (b. 1954)	United Kingdom (born in Japan)	English	"who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world"	novel, screenplay, short story
2018	File:Olga Tokarczuk-9730 (cropped).jpg	Olga Tokarczuk (b. 1962)	Poland	Polish	"for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life"	novel, short story, poetry, essay, screenplay
2019	File:Peter-handke (cropped3).jpg	Peter Handke (b. 1942)	Austria	German	"for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience"	novel, short story, drama, essay, translation, screenplay
2020	File:Louise Glück circa 1977 (cropped2).jpg	Louise Glück (1943–2023)	United States	English	"for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal"	poetry, essay
2021	File:Abdulrazak Gurnah 2022 (cropped2).jpg	Abdulrazak Gurnah (b. 1948)	Tanzania United Kingdom (born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar)	English	"for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents"	novel, short story, essay
2022	File:Annie Ernaux al Salone del Libro (cropped2).jpg	Annie Ernaux (b. 1940)	France	French	"for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory"	memoir, novel
2023	File:Writer Jon Fosse (cropped1).jpg	Jon Fosse (b. 1959)	Norway	Norwegian	"for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable"	drama, novel, poetry, essay
2024	File:Han Kang in 2017 (cropped).png	Han Kang (b. 1970)	South Korea	Korean	"for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life"	novel, poetry

Nobel laureates by country and birthplace

The 121 Nobel laureates in literature from 1901 to 2024 came from the following countries:

Country	Number
France	16
United States	13
United Kingdom	13
Germany	9
Sweden	8
Poland	6
Spain	6
Italy	6
Russia/Soviet Union	5
Ireland	4
Norway	4
Denmark	3
Austria	2
Chile	2
Greece	2
Japan	2
South Africa	2
Switzerland	2
China	2
Australia	1
Belarus	1
Belgium	1
Bulgaria	1
Canada	1
Colombia	1
Czechoslovakia	1
Egypt	1
Finland	1
Guatemala	1
Hungary	1
Iceland	1
India	1
Israel	1
Mauritius	1
Mexico	1
Nigeria	1
Peru	1
Portugal	1
Romania	1
Saint Lucia	1
South Korea	1
Tanzania	1
Turkey	1
Yugoslavia	1

Nobel laureates by language

The 121 Nobel laureates in literature from 1901 to 2024 wrote in the following languages:

Language	Number
English	29 (32)1
French	16
German	14 (15)2
Spanish	11
Swedish	7
Italian	6
Russian	6
Polish	5
Norwegian	4
Danish	3
Chinese	2
Greek	2
Japanese	2
Arabic	1
Bengali	1
Czech	1
Finnish	1
Hebrew	1
Hungarian	1
Icelandic	1
Korean	1
Provençal (Occitan)	1
Portuguese	1
Serbo-Croatian	1
Turkish	1
Yiddish	1

¹Rabindranath 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, respectively. ²Karl Adolph Gjellerup (Nobel Prize in Literature 1917) wrote in Danish and German.

Nobel laureates by gender

The 121 Nobel laureates in literature from 1901 to 2024 were from the following genders:

Decade	Male	Female
1900–1909	9	1
1910–1919	9	0
1920–1929	8	2
1930–1939	8	1
1940–1949	5	1
1950–1959	10	0
1960–1969	10	1
1970–1979	11	0
1980–1989	10	0
1990–1999	7	3
2000–2009	7	3
2010–2019	7	3
2020–2029	2	3
Total	103	18

References

Notes

^ A. The information in the country column is according to nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Foundation. This information may not necessarily reflect the recipient's birthplace or citizenship.

Sources

• "All Nobel Laureates in Literature". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2008-10-16.