Norwegian author and dramatist Jon Fosse has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”, the award-giving body has announced.
Key points:
- Jon Fosse said the award made him feel “overwhelmed, and somewhat frightened”
- Fosse is the fourth Norwegian writer to receive the Nobel Prize
- The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth about $1.5 million
One of his country’s most-performed dramatists, Fosse, 64, has written some 40 plays as well as novels, short stories, children’s books, poetry and essays.
“I am overwhelmed, and somewhat frightened,” Fosse said in a statement.
“I see this as an award to the literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other considerations.”
Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the academy, announced the prize in Stockholm on Thursday.
Mr Malm said he reached Fosse by telephone to inform him of the prize and that the writer was driving in the countryside and promised to drive home carefully.
Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel literature committee, said Fosse’s work was rooted “in the language and nature of his Norwegian background”.
The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.5 million.)
Fosse is the fourth Norwegian writer to receive the Nobel.
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson got it in 1903, Knut Hamsun was awarded it in 1920 and Sigrid Undset in 1928.
His work, A New Name: Septology VI-VII — described by Olsson as Fosse’s “magnum opus” — was a finalist for the International Booker Prize in 2022.
Established in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for achievements in literature, science and peace have been awarded since 1901, becoming a career pinnacle in the fields.
The economics prize is a later addition established by the Swedish central bank.
Alongside the peace prize, literature has often drawn the most attention, and controversy, thrusting lesser-known authors into the global spotlight as well as lifting book sales for well-established literary superstars.
Over the years, the literature prize has also picked winners well beyond the novelist tradition, including playwrights, historians, philosophers and poets, even breaking new ground with the award going to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 2016.
Last year’s Nobel was won by one of the main favourites, author Annie Ernaux, for her largely autobiographical books examining memory and social inequality, making her the first French woman to win the world’s most prestigious literary award.
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