The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature to Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Tanzanian novelist based in the United Kingdom for his works on the effects of colonialism and fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.
- The 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature was presented by Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.
- The 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature consists of a gold medal and a cash prize of 10 million Swedish Kronor (around Rs 8.5 crores).
About Abdulrazak Gurnah:
i.Abdulrazak Gurnah, born in 1948 in Zanzibar, Tanzania, is serving as a professor at the University of Kent, Canterbury, England.
ii.He is also the associate editor of the journal Wasafiri.
iii.He published his debut novel titled “Memory of Departure” in 1987.
iii.He has authored 10 novels and numerous short stories. His books include Pilgrims Way (1988), Paradise (1994) – shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction, Desertion (2005) – shortlisted for a 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, The Last Gift (2011) and Afterlives (2020)
Nobel Prize in Literature 2020:
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature was presented to American poet Louise Glück for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.
About Nobel Prize in Literature:
i.The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to 118 laureates between 1901 and 2021 of which 16 are women.
ii.The Nobel prize in literature was not awarded on 7 occasions, 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, and 1943.
iii.Only on 4 occasions, 1904, 1917, 1966, and 1974, the prize was shared between 2 individuals.
iv.At the age of 41, Rudyard Kipling won the prize in 1907 and became the youngest literature laureate.
Facts about Nobel Prize:
i.The Nobel Prize can be shared by up to 3 individuals and in the case of the Nobel Peace Prize, it can also be awarded to an organisation.
ii.Since 1974, the Prize cannot be awarded posthumously, if the recipient dies after the announcement of the prize, the prize can still be awarded to them.
