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Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize in Literature
By SEWELL CHANOCT. 13, 2016
Bob Dylan performing at the Hollywood Palladium in 2012. CreditChristopher Polk/Getty Images
LONDON — The singer and songwriter Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” in the words of the Swedish Academy.
He is the first American to win since the novelist Toni Morrison, in 1993. The announcement, in Stockholm, came as something of a surprise. Although Mr. Dylan, 75, has been mentioned often as having an outside shot at the prize, his work does not fit into the traditional literary canons of novels, poetry and short stories that the prize has traditionally recognized.
“Mr. Dylan’s work remains utterly lacking in conventionality, moral sleight of hand, pop pabulum or sops to his audience,” Bill Wyman wrote in a 2013 Op-Ed essay in The New York Times arguing the case for Mr. Dylan’s getting the award. “His lyricism is exquisite; his concerns and subjects are demonstrably timeless; and few poets of any era have seen their work bear more influence.”
2016 Nobel Prize Winners
Times coverage of this year's laureates.
The Nobel, one of the world’s most prestigious and financially generous awards, comes with a prize of 8 million Swedish kronor, or just over $900,000. The literature prize is given for a lifetime of writing rather than for a single work.
The prize announcement came hours after news of the death at age 90 of Dario Fo, the Italian playwright, director and performer whose satirical work was recognized by the 1997 prize.
Previous Nobel laureates in literature have included giants like Rudyard Kipling, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and Gabriel García Márquez.
Mr. Dylan in Paris in 1987.CreditBertrand Guay/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In recent years, the prize has gone to a stylistically and geographically diverse group of writers, among them the Belarussian journalist Svetlana Alexievich in 2015, the French novelist Patrick Modiano in 2014, the Canadian short story writer Alice Munro in 2013, the Chinese novelist and short story writer Mo Yan in 2012, and the Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer in 2011.
In the weeks before the announcement, speculation about potential winners swirled in the literary world and even in betting markets. Some familiar names were bandied about, including the American novelists Philip Rothand Don DeLillo, the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, the Kenyan playwright Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and the Syrian poet known as Adonis. Other writers seen as having an outside shot at the prize included the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare, the Spanish novelist Javier Marías and the South Korean poet Ko Un.
When Ms. Alexievich won last year, it was a rare instance of a nonfiction writer being honored by the Nobel committee for her artistic achievement. Ms. Alexievich, a journalist who has used oral history to examine painful moments in the history of the Soviet Union, including the Chernobyl disaster and the experience of Russian soldiers in Afghanistan, bases her books on years’ worth of interviews with hundreds of people.
By SEWELL CHANOCT. 13, 2016
Bob Dylan performing at the Hollywood Palladium in 2012. CreditChristopher Polk/Getty Images
LONDON — The singer and songwriter Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” in the words of the Swedish Academy.
He is the first American to win since the novelist Toni Morrison, in 1993. The announcement, in Stockholm, came as something of a surprise. Although Mr. Dylan, 75, has been mentioned often as having an outside shot at the prize, his work does not fit into the traditional literary canons of novels, poetry and short stories that the prize has traditionally recognized.
“Mr. Dylan’s work remains utterly lacking in conventionality, moral sleight of hand, pop pabulum or sops to his audience,” Bill Wyman wrote in a 2013 Op-Ed essay in The New York Times arguing the case for Mr. Dylan’s getting the award. “His lyricism is exquisite; his concerns and subjects are demonstrably timeless; and few poets of any era have seen their work bear more influence.”
2016 Nobel Prize Winners
Times coverage of this year's laureates.
Yoshinori Ohsumi, Physiology or Medicine
David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz, Physics
Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa, Chemistry
President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Peace
Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom, Memorial Prize in Economic Science
The Nobel, one of the world’s most prestigious and financially generous awards, comes with a prize of 8 million Swedish kronor, or just over $900,000. The literature prize is given for a lifetime of writing rather than for a single work.
The prize announcement came hours after news of the death at age 90 of Dario Fo, the Italian playwright, director and performer whose satirical work was recognized by the 1997 prize.
Previous Nobel laureates in literature have included giants like Rudyard Kipling, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and Gabriel García Márquez.
Mr. Dylan in Paris in 1987.CreditBertrand Guay/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In recent years, the prize has gone to a stylistically and geographically diverse group of writers, among them the Belarussian journalist Svetlana Alexievich in 2015, the French novelist Patrick Modiano in 2014, the Canadian short story writer Alice Munro in 2013, the Chinese novelist and short story writer Mo Yan in 2012, and the Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer in 2011.
In the weeks before the announcement, speculation about potential winners swirled in the literary world and even in betting markets. Some familiar names were bandied about, including the American novelists Philip Rothand Don DeLillo, the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, the Kenyan playwright Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and the Syrian poet known as Adonis. Other writers seen as having an outside shot at the prize included the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare, the Spanish novelist Javier Marías and the South Korean poet Ko Un.
When Ms. Alexievich won last year, it was a rare instance of a nonfiction writer being honored by the Nobel committee for her artistic achievement. Ms. Alexievich, a journalist who has used oral history to examine painful moments in the history of the Soviet Union, including the Chernobyl disaster and the experience of Russian soldiers in Afghanistan, bases her books on years’ worth of interviews with hundreds of people.
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