Nobel Prize in Literature

The 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature is Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

• Read the press release
• Read the bio-bibliography

Selected by the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Foundation:

The Swedish Academy
Box 5232
Sturegata 14 S-10245
Stockholm, Sweden

2008

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

2007

Doris Lessing United Kingdom

2006

Orhan Pamuk Turkey

2005

Harold Pinter United Kingdom

2004

Elfriede Jelinek Austria

2003

John Maxwell Coetzee South Africa

2002

Imre Kertész Hungary

2001

V S Naipaul Great Britain

2000

Gao Xingjian China

1999

Gunter Grass Germany

1998

Jose Saramago Portugal

1997

Dario Fo Italy

1996

Wislawa Szymborska Poland

1995

Seamus Heaney Ireland

1994

Kenzaburo Oe Japan

1993

Toni Morrison U.S.A.

1992

Derek Walcott Trinidad

1991

Nadine Gordimer South Africa

1990

Octavio Paz Mexico

1989

Dr. Camilo Jose Cela Spain

1988

Najib Mahfuz Egypt

1987

Joseph Brodsky U.S.S.R.

1986

Wole Soyinka Nigeria

1985

Claude Simon France

1984

Jaroslav Seifert Czechoslavakia

1983

William Golding United Kingdom

1982

Gabriel Garcia Marquez Colombia

1981

Elias Canetti United Kingdom

1980

Czeslaw Milosz Poland/U.S.A.

1979

Odysseus Elytis Greece

1978

Isaac Bashevis Singer U.S.A

1977

Vicente Aleixandre Spain

1976

Saul Bellow U.S.A.

1975

Eugenio Montale Italy

1974

Eyvind Johnson Sweden

1973

Patrick White Australia

1972

Heinrich Boll Federal Republic of Germany

1971

Pablo Neruda Chile

1970

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn U.S.S.R.

1969

Samuel Beckett Ireland

1968

Yasunari Kawabata Japan

1967

Miguel A. Asturias Guatemala

1966

Shmuel Y. Agnon Israel

1966

Nelly Sachs Germany

1965

Mikhail Sholokhov U.S.S.R.

1964

Jean-Paul Sartre France (declined)

1963

Giorgos Seferis Greece

1962

John Steinbeck U.S.A.

1961

Ivo Andric Yugoslavia

1960

Saint-John Perse France

1959

Salvatore Quasimodo Italy

1958

Boris Pasternak U.S.S.R.

1957

Albert Camus France

1956

J.R. Jimenez Spain

1955

Halldor Laxness Iceland

1954

Ernest Hemingway U.S.A.

1953

Winston Churchill United Kingdom

1952

Francois Mauriac France

1951

Par Lagerkvist Sweden

1950

Bertrand Russell United Kingdom

1949

William Faulkner U.S.A.

1948

T.S. Eliot United Kingdom

1947

Andre Gide France

1946

Hermann Hesse Switzerland

1945

Gabriela Mistral Chile

1944

Johannes V. Jensen Denmark

1943

No Award

1942

No Award

1941

No Award

1940

No Award

1939

F.E. Sillanpaa Finland

1938

Pearl S. Buck U.S.A.

1937

Roger Martin du Gard France

1936

Eugene O’Neill U.S.A.

1935

No Award

1934

Luigi Pirandello Italy

1933

Ivan Bunin Stateless

1932

John Galsworthy United Kingdom

1931

Erik Axel Karlfeldt Sweden

1930

Sinclair Lewis U.S.A.

1929

Thomas Mann Germany

1928

Sigrid Undset Norway

1927

Henri Bergson France

1926

Grazia Deledda Italy

1925

George Bernard Shaw United Kingdom

1924

Wladyslaw Reymont Poland

1923

William Butler Yeats Ireland

1922

Jacinto Benavente Spain

1921

Anatole France France

1920

Knut Hamsun Norway

1919

Carl Spitteler Switzerland

1918

No Award

1917

Karl Gjellerup Denmark

1917

Henrik Pontoppidan Denmark

1916

Verner von Heidenstam Sweden

1915

Romain Rolland France

1914

No Award

1913

Rabindranath Tagore India

1912

Gerhart Hauptmann Germany

1911

Maurice Maeterlinck Belgium

1910

Paul Heyse Germany

1909

Selma Lagerlof Sweden

1908

Rudoll Eucken Germany

1907

Rudyard Kipling United Kingdom

1906

Giouse Carducci Italy

1905

Henryk Sienkiewicz Poland

1904

Jose Echegaray Spain

1904

Frederic Mistral France

1903

Bjornstjerne Bjornson Norway

1902

Theodor Mommsen Germany

1901

Sully Prudhomme France