Bob Dylan, American Songwriter, Wins Nobel Prize in Literature 2016

After a week of anticipation for book lovers and a 24-hour countdown on the Nobel website, the Nobel Academy announced on Thursday, October 14, that Bob Dylan, the American songwriter and singer, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2016. The Academy cited the reason for selecting this great American composer as 'the creation of a new poetic expression within the tradition of American songs.' Bob Dylan is considered one of the most influential figures in contemporary American music. His famous song 'Like a Rolling Stone' was chosen by Rolling Stone magazine as the greatest song of all time. However, the announcement of 75-year-old Bob Dylan as the winner of this prestigious award is likely to be quite shocking. Mr. Dylan has been on the list of popular American nominees for this award for several years, but he does not fit the traditional definition of a writer as understood in the context of previous Nobel laureates. Thus, the Nobel Academy took a significant and unconventional step in 2016, which may explain the delay in announcing the winner: there was likely considerable debate behind closed doors at the Academy last week. Since 1993, Bob Dylan is the first American to receive this prestigious award, with Toni Morrison being the last American laureate in 1993. The betting company 'Ladbrokes' had introduced four individuals as the biggest contenders for the Nobel Prize in Literature this year: Adonis from Syria, who apparently had the best chance of winning, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, a Kenyan novelist and playwright, Jon Fosse from Norway, and Ko Un from South Korea. The announcement of the 2016 winner coincided with the death of another Nobel laureate: the Italian government announced that Dario Fo, playwright, actor, and Nobel Prize winner, passed away on Thursday, October 14, at the age of 90. From 1901 to 2016, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to 109 individuals, among whom 14 have been women. Unlike other Nobel prizes such as those in medicine, physics, and chemistry, the Nobel Prize in Literature has only been awarded jointly to two individuals four times in its over a century-long history. The youngest laureate to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature is the British Rudyard Kipling, who received the award at the age of 41, while the oldest laureate, also from Britain, Doris Lessing, received the award in 2007 at the age of 88. The Nobel prizes in medicine, physics, and chemistry were awarded on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of last week.