Norwegian author Jon Fosse wins Nobel Prize in Literature for 'innovative plays and prose'

The Swedish Academy announced Thursday that the Norwegian author Jon Fosse has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable."

Primarily writing in Norwegian, Fosse's works have been compiled and translated into English and other languages. The Nobel Prize was awarded for his whole body of work.

Fosse has written more than three dozen plays as well as novels, short stories, children’s books, poetry and essays.

“I am overwhelmed and grateful. I see this as an award to the literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other considerations,” Fosse, 64, said via a statement released by the publishing house Samlaget.

Fosse's debut novel, "Raudt, svart," was published in 1983 and was hailed as "emotionally raw," according to his bibliography from the Nobel Prize, broaching the theme of suicide and setting the tone for his later work. His European breakthrough came when his 1996 play "Nokon kjem til å komme," was made in Paris in 1999, later translated in 2002 as "Someone Is Going to Come."

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Nobel Prize organizers dubbed Fosse's prose magnum opus as "Septology," completed in 2021 and compiling of: "Det andre namnet," published in 2019 and translated to "The Other Name" in 2020; "Eg er ein annan," published in 2020 and translated to "I is Another"; and "Eit nytt namn," published in2021 and translated to "A New Name."

The 1,250-page novel is written as a monologue where an elderly artist speaks to himself as another person over seven days and is written without sentence breaks.

The first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1901. Fosse joins other laureates who have won the literature prize, including French author Annie Ernaux in 2022, Bob Dylan in 2016 and Toni Morrison in 1993.

The remaining Nobel Prizes – in peace and economic sciences – will be awarded on Friday and Monday.

Who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?

On Wednesday, Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery and development of quantum dots that can be used for a variety of things, from TVs and LED lamps to guiding surgeons in removing tumor tissue.

Quantum dots are nanoparticles, the smallest components of nanotechnology, that can transport electrons and emit light of various colors when exposed to UV light.

Who won the Nobel Prize in Physics?

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded Tuesday to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier after the three scientists "demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy," according to the Academy of Science.

The laurates' experiments produced extremely short pulses of light, called attoseconds, that were used to demonstrate it was possible to obtain images of processes inside atoms and molecules. According to the Academy of Science, attoseconds are so short that there are as many in one second as there have been seconds since the birth of the universe.

Who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine?

On Monday, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was given to Katalin Karikó and Dr. Drew Weissman for research that led to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

What is the Nobel Prize?

The Nobel Prize is awarded by the Swedish Nobel Foundation and is a set of awards given annually to people in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. There is also a prize given in Economic Science, funded by the Sveriges Riksbank in 1968.

The first award was given in 1901.

It was created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, known for his invention of dynamite, in his will in 1895.

Contributing: The Associated Press