The Nobel Prizes in Literature for 2018 and 2019

In a statement this year, Anders Olsson, who leads the Nobel academy’s literature committee, conceded that diversity should be more of a priority and indicated that the committee would take geographic diversity and gender into account in making its selection.

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 is awarded to the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, “for a narrative imagination that with encyclopaedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.”

Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk

Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk, was born on 29 January 1962 who is a Polish writer, activist and public intellectual. Olga Nawoja was born in Sulechow near Zielona Gora, Poland. She graduated in 1995 as a psychologist at the University of Warsaw and began practising as a therapist.  Since 1998, Tokarczuk has lived in a small village Krajanow near Nowa Ruda, Poland. She also manages her private publishing company Ruta.

Tokarczuk is particularly noted for the mythical tone of her writing. She trained as a psychologist at the University of Warsaw and published a collection of poems, several novels, as well as other books with shorter prose works.

Tokarczuk is the laureate of numerous literary awards both in and outside Poland.

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019 is awarded to the Austrian author, Peter Handke “for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.”

Peter Handke

Peter Handke, is an Austrian novelist, playwright and translator. He was born on 6 December 1942 in Griffen, Austria. In 1954, Handke was sent to the Catholic Marianum boys’ boarding school at Tanzenberg Castle, Austria. There, he published his first writing in the school newspaper, Fackel. In 1959, he moved to Klagenfurt, where he went to high school. In 1961, he commenced law studies at the University of Graz. Handke abandoned his studies in 1965, after the German publishing house Suhrkamp Verlag accepted his novel Die Hornissen (The Hornets) for publication. Since 1991, he has lived in Chaville near Paris, France.

However many have hit out against the academy’s decision to hand the prize to a man who was considered close to former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic.

Link for his literary works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Handke_bibliography