Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 goes to Jon Fosse

Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse he won Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 for his "innovative" works that have been performed on stages around the world, highlighted the Swedish Academy, which awards the award.

Jon Fosse, 64, was awarded "for his innovative works of theater and prose, which give voice to the unspeakable"declared the Stockholm-based Academy.

"I am overwhelmed and grateful. I see it as an award for literature that above all aims to be literature, without other considerations," Fosse said in a statement. "I was surprised when they called me, but not that surprised either," he added to the Norwegian public channel NRK.

Fosse was born on September 29, 1959 in the city of Haugesund (southwest); he is a versatile writer and not very accessible to the general public. However, he is one of the living authors whose plays are most performed in Europe.

Often compared to Samuel Beckett, the Fosse's work is minimalist, based on simple language that transmits its message through rhythm, melody and silence. He emerged as a playwright on the European stage with his work someone is coming.

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2023

He also became known for Naustet (1989, not translated into Spanish), which earned him critical acclaim, and Melancholy I and II (1995-96), another of his great works.

His name had been circulating for years among the favorites to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. When he heard the news, "I was driving through the countryside, towards the fjord north of Bergen in Norway," Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, said after the announcement.

"We had the opportunity to start talking about practical issues and Nobel week in December," he added.

Work by Jon Fosse, with a wide variety of genres

"His immense body of work written in Norwegian Nynorsk (one of Norway's written linguistic forms) and spanning a wide variety of genres consists of a large number of plays, novels, poems, essays, children's books and translations," stated the jury.

"Although today he is one of the most represented playwrights in the world, he is also increasingly recognized for his prose," he added.

Fosse's works have been translated into around 50 languages. According to his Norwegian publishing house Samlaget, his works have been performed more than a thousand times around the world.

"My books are not read for the plots," he told the Financial Times in 2018.

"I don't write about characters in the traditional sense of the word. I write about humanity," Fosse also told the French newspaper Le Monde in 2003.

Winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize is endowed with a medal and a prize of 11 million Swedish crowns (about a million dollars).

Last year, the award went to French feminist icon Annie Ernauxknown for her deceptively simple novels, based on personal experiences of class and gender.

The Academy has long been criticized for the overrepresentation of white Western authors among its honorees.

from the wave #MeToo in 2018has carried out important reforms, promising a most global and gender-equal literature award.

Since then, he has honored three women - Annie Ernauxthe American poetand Louise Gluck and the polish Olga Tokarczuk- already three men - the Austrian author Peter Handkethe Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah and Jon Fosse.

Fosse will receive the Nobel Prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at an official ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the death of scientist Alfred Nobel in 1896.

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