List of Nobel laureates 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 2023, the Nobel Prize in Literature had been awarded to 120 individuals. 17 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 2023, 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

Nobel laureates by birthplace

Nobel laureates by country

The 120 Nobel laureates in literature from 1901 to 2023 have come from the following countries:

Nobel Prize in Literature (by language)

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 120 Nobel laureates in literature from 1901 to 2023 were from the following genders:

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

1. List of black Nobel laureates
2. List of Muslim Nobel laureates
3. List of Nobel laureates by country
4. List of Chinese Nobel laureates
5. List of Israeli Nobel laureates
6. List of Russian Nobel laureates
7. List of Asian Nobel laureates
8. Nobel Prize in Literature
9. Lists of Nobel laureates
10. List of female Nobel laureates
11. List of Polish Nobel laureates
12. List of Indian Nobel laureates
13. List of Nobel laureates
14. List of Nobel laureates by university affiliation
15. List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry
16. List of Latin American Nobel laureates
17. List of Jewish Nobel laureates
18. List of American Nobel laureates
19. List of Hungarian Nobel laureates
20. List of African Nobel laureates