Awards Record

Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature: winners and how it is awarded

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded since 1901 under the will of Alfred Nobel. The laureate is chosen by the Swedish Academy and the prize recognises an author's body of work rather than a single book in most cases.2,1,5

Awarded bySwedish Academy
Established1901
FrequencyAnnual
Prize valueSEK 11.0 million per full Nobel Prize, shared equally or by the committee's division where there are several laureates (as of 2023 (amount set for 2023 on the official prize amounts page))

How the winner is chosen

Nominations are by invitation. The Nobel Prize organisation says thousands of members of academies, university professors, scientists, previous laureates and others are asked to propose candidates, and the deadline for submissions is midnight on 31 January. A Nobel Committee of five to ten members reviews the candidates and consults experts, and the prize-awarding institution then takes a final vote. For literature the selecting institution is the Swedish Academy.

Winners

  1. 2026Anne Carson9,11Her "bold and inventive oeuvre" in "playful dialogue with the classical tradition", as quoted by Al Jazeera from the Swedish Academy
  2. 2025László Krasznahorkai6A compelling and visionary oeuvre that, amid apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art
  3. 2024Han Kang7Intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life
  4. 2023Jon Fosse8Innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable
  5. 2022Annie Ernaux12The courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots and restraints of personal memory
  6. 2021Abdulrazak Gurnah13Uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee
  7. 2020Louise Glück14An unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal
  8. 2019Peter Handke15Influential work that with linguistic ingenuity explored the periphery and specificity of human experience
  9. 2018Olga Tokarczuk16A narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life. The 2018 prize was announced and presented in 2019
  10. 2017Kazuo Ishiguro17Novels of great emotional force that uncover the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world
  11. 2016Bob Dylan18Having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition

Not awarded in: {'year': 1914, 'note': 'No prize awarded', 'sources': ['w_lit']}, {'year': 1918, 'note': 'No prize awarded', 'sources': ['w_lit']}, {'year': 1935, 'note': 'No prize awarded', 'sources': ['w_lit']}, {'year': 1940, 'note': 'No prize awarded', 'sources': ['w_lit']}, {'year': 1941, 'note': 'No prize awarded', 'sources': ['w_lit']}, {'year': 1942, 'note': 'No prize awarded', 'sources': ['w_lit']}, {'year': 1943, 'note': 'No prize awarded', 'sources': ['w_lit']}.

Notable facts

Nominee names and other nomination details are kept secret and the Nobel Prize organisation says they cannot be revealed until 50 years later.4

The official prize amounts page states that the Nobel Prize amount for 2023 was set at SEK 11.0 million per full prize.3

Jean-Paul Sartre declined the 1964 prize because he had consistently refused all official honours.10

Boris Pasternak first accepted the 1958 prize but, according to the Nobel Prize organisation, Soviet authorities later pressured him into declining.10

Erik Axel Karlfeldt was awarded the 1931 prize posthumously, one of two posthumous awards made before the 1974 rule change.10

Since 1974 the statutes say a prize cannot be awarded posthumously unless death has occurred after the announcement.10

Sources

  1. Nobel Prize Outreach, Prize announcement dates (2026)
  2. Nobel Prize Outreach, Nomination and selection of Nobel Prize laureates
  3. Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Prize amounts (2023)
  4. Nobel Prize Outreach, Nomination archive
  5. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes
  6. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2025 (October 2025)
  7. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2024 (October 2024)
  8. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2023 (October 2023)
  9. Associated Press (via KSAT), A list of this year's Nobel Prize winners (12 October 2026)
  10. Nobel Prize Outreach, Nobel Prize facts (27 October 2026)
  11. Al Jazeera (with AFP, Reuters, AP), Canadian Anne Carson wins 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature (October 2026)
  12. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2022 (2022)
  13. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2021 (2021)
  14. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2020 (2020)
  15. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2019 (2019)
  16. Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Prize in Literature 2018, summary (2018)
  17. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2017 (2017)
  18. Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016, summary (2016)
  19. Wikipedia, List of Nobel laureates in Literature (27 October 2026)