Nobel Prize in Literature 2023

The Norwegian author, Jon Fosse, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2023. The Swedish Academy awarded Jon Fosse with the Nobel Prize on October 5, “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”.

Jon Olav Fosse was born in 1959 in Norway. He began writing at the age of twelve. When he was seven, he got into a severe accident which influenced his writing when he became an adult. Fosse began writing in the Norwegian language Nynorsk and published three novels. After gaining a master’s degree in comparative literature in 1987, Fosse went on to author several more novels, short stories, poetry, children’s books, plays and essays. 

He became the first Nynorsk writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Fosse’s work puts forward the emotions of anxiety and powerlessness in a simple but effective way. He often brings about the theme of losing direction in one’s life and how this experience can allow a person to understand the deeper emotions of life. His work has been translate into over 40 languages.

Some of his most notable works include Morning and Evening (2015), Aliss at the Fire (2004), Andvake (2007), I Am The Wind (2003) and Melancholy I-II (2023).