Nobel Prize Literature Winners Since 1901

The Nobel Prize in Literature started awarding authors yearly in 1901 for “idealistic” or “ideal” works, which has led to much controversy on exactly what this means. Of late, it has been interpreted to favor authors promoting human rights. The Nobel prize literature winners award was established by Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel. The Nobel prize literature winners prize includes a gold medal, a diploma, money and international recognition. The Nobel prizes are presented annually on December 10 (the anniversary of Nobel’s death) in Stockholm. Four other Nobel Prizes are also awarded for outstanding contributions in physics, chemistry, medicine/physiology and peace.

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Year Nobel Prize Laureates Nationality
1901 Rene F. A. Sully Prudhomme French
1902 Theodore Mommsen German
1903 Bjornsterne Bjornson Norwegian
1904 Frederic Mistral French
1904 Jose Echegaray Spanish
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz Polish
1906 Giosue Carducci Italian
1907 Rudyard Kipling British
1908 Rudolf C. Eucken German
1909 Selma Lagerlöf Swedish
1910 Paul J. L. Heyse German
1911 Maurice Maeterlinck Belgium
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann German
1913 Rabindranath Tagore India
1914 NO PRIZE AWARDED  
1915 Romain Rolland French
1916 Verner von Heidenstam Swedish
1917 Karl A. Gjellerup Danish
1917 Henrik Pontoppidan Danish
1918 NO PRIZE AWARDED  
1919 Carl F. G. Spitteler Swiss
1920 Knut Hamsun Norwegian
1921 Anatole France French
1922 Jacinto Benavente Spanish
1923 William Butler Yeats Irish
1924 Wladyslaw S. Reymont Polish
1925 George Bernard Shaw Irish – British
1926 Grazia Deledda Italian
1927 Henri Bergson French
1928 Sigrid Undset Norwegian
1929 Thomas Mann German
1930 Sinclair Lewis US American
1931 Erik A. Karlfeldt Swedish
1932 John Galsworthy British
1933 Ivan A. Bunin Soviet
1934 Luigi Pirandello Italian
1935 NO PRIZE AWARDED  
1936 Eugene O’Neill US American
1937 Roger Martin du Gard French
1938 Parl S. Buck US American
1939 Frans E. Sillanpää Finnish
1940 NO PRIZE AWARDED  
1941 NO PRIZE AWARDED  
1942 NO PRIZE AWARDED  
1943 NO PRIZE AWARDED  
1944 Johannes V. Jensen Danish
1945 Gabriela Mistral Chilean
1946 Hermann Hesse German – Swiss
1947 André Gide French
1948 T. S. Eliot British
1949 William Faulkner US American
1950 Bertrand Russell British
1951 Pär F. Lagerkvist Swedish
1952 Francois Mauriac French
1953 Sir Winston Churchill British
1954 Ernest Hemingway US American
1955 Halldor K. Laxness Icelandic
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez Spanish
1957 Albert Camus French
1958 Boris L. Pasternak (declined) Soviet
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo Italian
1960 Saint-John Perse French
1961 Ivo Andric Yugoslavian
1962 John Steinbeck US American
1963 Giorgos Seferis Greek
1964 Jean Paul Sartre (declined) French
1965 Mikhail Sholokhov Soviet
1966 Samuel Joseph Agnon Israeli
1966 Nelly Sachs Swedish
1967 Miguel Angel Asturias Guatemalan
1968 Yasunari Kawabata Japanese
1969 Samuel Beckett Irish
1970 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn Soviet
1971 Pablo Neruda Chilean
1972 Heinrich Böll German
1973 Patrick White Australia
1974 Eyvind Johnson Swedish
1974 Harry Edmund Martinson Swedish
1975 Eugenio Montale Italian
1976 Saul Bellow US American
1977 Vicente Aleixandre Spanish
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer US American
1979 Odysseus Elytis Greek
1980 Czeslaw Milosz Polish – US American
1981 Elias Canetti Bulgarian – British
1982 Gabriel Garcia Marquez Columbia – Mexico
1983 William Golding British
1984 Jaroslav Siefert Czechoslovakian
1985 Claude Simon French
1986 Wole Soyinka Nigerian
1987 Joseph Brodsky Soviet – US American
1988 Naguib Mahfouz Egyptian
1989 Camilo José Cela Spanish
1990 Octavio Paz Mexican
1991 Nadine Gordimer South Africann
1992 Derek Walcott West Indian
1993 Toni Morrison US American
1994 Kenzaburo Oe Japanese
1995 Seamus Heaney Irish
1996 Wislawa Szymborska Polish
1997 Dario Fo Italian
1998 José Saramago Portugal
1999 Günter Grass German
2000 Gao Xingjian French
2001 Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul British
2002 Imre Kertész Hungarian
2003 John M. Coetzee South African
2004 Elfriede Jelinek Austrian
2005 Harold Pinter British
2006 Orhan Pamuk Turkish
2007 Doris Lessing British
2008 Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio French
2009 Herta Müller German
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa Peruvian
2011 Tomas Tranströmer Swedish
2012 Mo Yan Chinese
2013 Alice Munro Canadian
2014 Patrick Modiano France
2015 Svetlana Alexievich Belarusian