Nobel Prize in Literature Winners: Complete List by Year

122 winning results from 1901 to 2025, plus 0 recorded shortlist and finalist results. Explore the chronological list and follow the links to authors, available book guides and other winners from the same year.

Country: Sweden
Founded: 1901
Frequency: Annual
Official website: Visit site

The Nobel Prize in Literature recognises an author’s literary work. It is awarded to a person, not a single winning book.

The Nobel Prize recognises an author’s literary work, not an individual book. Nobel nominations are confidential for 50 years; no contemporary shortlist is published here.

Winners by year

Year	Book / recipient	Award	Result
2025	László Krasznahorkai Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2024	Han Kang Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2023	Jon Fosse Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2022	Annie Ernaux Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2021	Abdulrazak Gurnah Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2020	Louise Glück Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2019	Peter Handke Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2018	Olga Tokarczuk Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2017	Kazuo Ishiguro Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2016	Bob Dylan Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2015	Svetlana Alexievich Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2014	Patrick Modiano Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2013	Alice Munro Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2012	Mo Yan Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2011	Tomas Tranströmer Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2010	Mario Vargas Llosa Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2009	Herta Müller Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2008	Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2007	Doris Lessing Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2006	Orhan Pamuk Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2005	Harold Pinter Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2004	Elfriede Jelinek Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2003	J. M. Coetzee Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2002	Imre Kertész Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2001	V. S. Naipaul Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
2000	Xingjian Gao Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1999	Günter Grass Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1998	José Saramago Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1997	Dario Fo Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1996	Wisława Szymborska Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1995	Seamus Heaney Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1994	Kenzaburo Oe Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1993	Toni Morrison Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1992	Derek Walcott Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1991	Nadine Gordimer Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1990	Octavio Paz Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1989	Camilo José Cela Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1988	Naguib Mahfouz Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1987	Joseph Brodsky Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1986	Wole Soyinka Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1985	Claude Simon Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1984	Jaroslav Seifert Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1983	William Golding Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1982	Gabriel García Márquez Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1981	Elias Canetti Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1980	Czesław Miłosz Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1979	Odysseus Elytis Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1978	Isaac Bashevis Singer Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1977	Vicente Aleixandre Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1976	Saul Bellow Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1975	Eugenio Montale Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1974	Eyvind Johnson Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1974	Harry Martinson Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1973	Patrick White Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1972	Heinrich Böll Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1971	Pablo Neruda Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1970	Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1969	Samuel Beckett Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1968	Yasunari Kawabata Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1967	Miguel Angel Asturias Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1966	Nelly Sachs Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1966	Shmuel Agnon Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1965	Mikhail Sholokhov Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1964	Jean-Paul Sartre Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1963	Giorgos Seferis Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1962	John Steinbeck Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1961	Ivo Andrić Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1960	Saint-John Perse Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1959	Salvatore Quasimodo Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1958	Boris Pasternak Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1957	Albert Camus Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1956	Juan Ramón Jiménez Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1955	Halldór Laxness Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1954	Ernest Hemingway Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1953	Winston Churchill Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1952	François Mauriac Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1951	Pär Lagerkvist Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1950	Bertrand Russell Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1949	William Faulkner Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1948	T.S. Eliot Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1947	André Gide Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1946	Hermann Hesse Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1945	Gabriela Mistral Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1944	Johannes V. Jensen Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1939	Frans Eemil Sillanpää Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1938	Pearl Buck Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1937	Roger Martin du Gard Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1936	Eugene O'Neill Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1934	Luigi Pirandello Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1933	Ivan Bunin Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1932	John Galsworthy Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1931	Erik Axel Karlfeldt Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1930	Sinclair Lewis Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1929	Thomas Mann Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1928	Sigrid Undset Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1927	Henri Bergson Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1926	Grazia Deledda Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1925	George Bernard Shaw Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1924	Władysław Reymont Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1923	William Butler Yeats Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1922	Jacinto Benavente Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1921	Anatole France Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1920	Knut Hamsun Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1919	Carl Spitteler Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1917	Henrik Pontoppidan Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1917	Karl Gjellerup Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1916	Verner von Heidenstam Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1915	Romain Rolland Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1913	Rabindranath Tagore Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1912	Gerhart Hauptmann Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1911	Maurice Maeterlinck Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1910	Paul Heyse Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1909	Selma Lagerlöf Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1908	Rudolf Eucken Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1907	Rudyard Kipling Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1906	Giosuè Carducci Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1905	Henryk Sienkiewicz Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1904	Frédéric Mistral Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1904	José Echegaray Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1903	Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1902	Theodor Mommsen Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource
1901	Sully Prudhomme Award for the author’s body of work	Nobel Prize in Literature	winnerSource

Sources and coverage

Records retrieved 2026-09-18. Every winning year in the 1901–2025 coverage period is represented, allowing for the exceptions below. This completeness check covers years, not an independently verified count of every finalist. Each row links to its source.

Years without an award in this category, or outside its award cycle: 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943.

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