On Oct. 5, 2023, the Swedish Academy awarded the Norwegian author and dramatist Jon Fosse the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable,” the award-giving body said.
Fosse, a 64-year-old, was born on the west coast of Norway. His work consists of around 40 plays, including novels, short stories, children’s books, poetry and essays.
His work "touches on the deepest feelings that you have, anxieties, insecurities, questions of life and death," says Ander Olsson, chair of the Nobel literature committee.
Fosse’s work has been translated into approximately 50 languages. According to his Norwegian publisher, Samlaget, his plays have been staged more than a thousand times worldwide.
His works include the Septology series of novels, “Aliss at the Fire,” “Melancholy,” and “A Shining.”
His work “A New Name: Septology VI-VII” described by Olsson as Fosse’s magnum opus, was a finalist for the International Booker Prize in 2022. The final volume in a seven-novel exploration of life, death and spirituality contains no sentence breaks.
He has been seen as a long-time contender for the prize and one of this year's favorites in the betting odds. Fosse said he was “overwhelmed and somewhat frightened.”
Fosse was the fourth Norwegian writer to win the Nobel but the first in nearly a century, following Bjornstjerne Bjornson in 1903, Knut Hamsun in 1920 and Sigrid Undset in 1928.
The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 11 million Swedish crowns (about $1 million).