Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk was cited by the committee for “a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”, and Peter Handke for “an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience”.
Each laureate is also entitled to a cash award of 9 million Swedish Kroner, which exceeds $900,000.
Last year, the presentation of the literary Nobel had to be canceled due to a scandal at the Swedish Academy - the organisation that selects the winner.
Since 1901, 110 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded. To date, 14 women have been awarded this prize. The youngest Nobel Prize winner in literature was the 41-year-old Rudyard Kipling (1907), who became world famous for his Jungle Book. The oldest prize winner is Doris Lessing (2007), who was finally recognised by the Swedish academy at the age of 88. None of the Nobel Prize winners in literature have been awarded twice.