Winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature | Authors, Poets, Playwrights | Britannica (2024)

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Article History

The Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded, according to the will of Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel, “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind” in the field of literature. It is conferred by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.

The table provides a list of winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Nobel Prize winners by category (literature)
year name country* literary area
*Nationality given is the citizenship of the recipient at the time the award was made. Prizes may be withheld or not awarded in years when no worthy recipient can be found or when the world situation (e.g., World Wars I and II) prevents the gathering of information needed to reach a decision.
**Prize awarded in 2019.
1901 Sully Prudhomme France poet
1902 Theodor Mommsen Germany historian
1903 Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson Norway novelist, poet, dramatist
1904 José Echegaray y Eizaguirre Spain dramatist
Frédéric Mistral France poet
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz Poland novelist
1906 Giosuè Carducci Italy poet
1907 Rudyard Kipling U.K. poet, novelist
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken Germany philosopher
1909 Selma Lagerlöf Sweden novelist
1910 Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse Germany poet, novelist, dramatist
1911 Maurice Maeterlinck Belgium dramatist
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann Germany dramatist
1913 Rabindranath Tagore India poet
1915 Romain Rolland France novelist
1916 Verner von Heidenstam Sweden poet
1917 Karl Gjellerup Denmark novelist
Henrik Pontoppidan Denmark novelist
1918 Erik Axel Karlfeldt (declined) Sweden poet
1919 Carl Spitteler Switzerland poet, novelist
1920 Knut Hamsun Norway novelist
1921 Anatole France France novelist
1922 Jacinto Benavente y Martínez Spain dramatist
1923 William Butler Yeats Ireland poet
1924 Władysław Stanisław Reymont Poland novelist
1925 George Bernard Shaw Ireland dramatist
1926 Grazia Deledda Italy novelist
1927 Henri Bergson France philosopher
1928 Sigrid Undset Norway novelist
1929 Thomas Mann Germany novelist
1930 Sinclair Lewis U.S. novelist
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt (posthumous award) Sweden poet
1932 John Galsworthy U.K. novelist
1933 Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin U.S.S.R. poet, novelist
1934 Luigi Pirandello Italy dramatist
1936 Eugene O'Neill U.S. dramatist
1937 Roger Martin du Gard France novelist
1938 Pearl Buck U.S. novelist
1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää Finland novelist
1944 Johannes V. Jensen Denmark novelist
1945 Gabriela Mistral Chile poet
1946 Hermann Hesse Switzerland novelist
1947 André Gide France novelist, essayist
1948 T.S. Eliot U.K. poet, critic
1949 William Faulkner U.S. novelist
1950 Bertrand Russell U.K. philosopher
1951 Pär Lagerkvist Sweden novelist
1952 François Mauriac France poet, novelist, dramatist
1953 Sir Winston Churchill U.K. historian, orator
1954 Ernest Hemingway U.S. novelist
1955 Halldór Laxness Iceland novelist
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez Spain poet
1957 Albert Camus France novelist, dramatist
1958 Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (declined) U.S.S.R. novelist, poet
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo Italy poet
1960 Saint-John Perse France poet
1961 Ivo Andric Yugoslavia novelist
1962 John Steinbeck U.S. novelist
1963 George Seferis Greece poet
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (declined) France philosopher, dramatist
1965 Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov U.S.S.R. novelist
1966 S.Y. Agnon Israel novelist
Nelly Sachs Sweden poet
1967 Miguel Ángel Asturias Guatemala novelist
1968 Kawabata Yasunari Japan novelist
1969 Samuel Beckett Ireland novelist, dramatist
1970 Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn U.S.S.R. novelist
1971 Pablo Neruda Chile poet
1972 Heinrich Böll West Germany novelist
1973 Patrick White Australia novelist
1974 Eyvind Johnson Sweden novelist
Harry Martinson Sweden novelist, poet
1975 Eugenio Montale Italy poet
1976 Saul Bellow U.S. novelist
1977 Vicente Aleixandre Spain poet
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer U.S. novelist
1979 Odysseus Elytis Greece poet
1980 Czesław Miłosz U.S. poet
1981 Elias Canetti Bulgaria novelist, essayist
1982 Gabriel García Márquez Colombia novelist, journalist, social critic
1983 Sir William Golding U.K. novelist
1984 Jaroslav Seifert Czechoslovakia poet
1985 Claude Simon France novelist
1986 Wole Soyinka Nigeria dramatist, poet
1987 Joseph Brodsky U.S. poet, essayist
1988 Naguib Mahfouz Egypt novelist
1989 Camilo José Cela Spain novelist
1990 Octavio Paz Mexico poet, essayist
1991 Nadine Gordimer South Africa novelist
1992 Derek Walcott Saint Lucia poet
1993 Toni Morrison U.S. novelist
1994 Oe Kenzaburo Japan novelist
1995 Seamus Heaney Ireland poet
1996 Wisława Szymborska Poland poet
1997 Dario Fo Italy dramatist, actor
1998 José Saramago Portugal novelist
1999 Günter Grass Germany novelist
2000 Gao Xingjian France novelist, dramatist
2001 Sir V.S. Naipaul Trinidad novelist
2002 Imre Kertész Hungary novelist
2003 J.M. Coetzee South Africa novelist
2004 Elfriede Jelinek Austria novelist, dramatist
2005 Harold Pinter U.K. dramatist
2006 Orhan Pamuk Turkey novelist
2007 Doris Lessing U.K. novelist
2008 Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio France novelist, essayist
2009 Herta Müller Germany novelist
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa Peru novelist, dramatist
2011 Tomas Tranströmer Sweden poet
2012 Mo Yan China novelist, short-story writer
2013 Alice Munro Canada short-story writer
2014 Patrick Modiano France novelist
2015 Svetlana Alexievich Belarus journalist, prose writer
2016 Bob Dylan U.S. singer, songwriter
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro U.K. novelist
2018** Olga Tokarczuk Poland novelist, poet, essayist
2019 Peter Handke Austria novelist, poet, essayist, playwright
2020 Louise Glück U.S. poet
2021 Abdulrazak Gurnah Tanzania novelist
2022 Annie Ernaux France novelist, memoirist
2023 Jon Fosse Norway novelist, playwright, poet
2024 Han Kang South Korea novelist

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

Winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature | Authors, Poets, Playwrights | Britannica (2024)
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