Enjoy some readings
"Once upon our time, there was an earthquake ..."
1991 Nobel Laureate in Literature Nadine Gordimer reads her short story 'Loot' from Loot and Other Stories.
Reading by Orhan Pamuk
"Here we come to the heart of the matter: I've never left Istanbul - never left the houses, streets and neighbourhoods of my childhood ..."
2006 Nobel Laureate in Literature Orhan Pamuk reads from his novel Istanbul: Memories of a City.
Featured Literature Laureates
Svetlana Alexievich
Svetlana Alexievich depicts life during and after the Soviet Union through the experience of individuals.
© Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz' rich and complex work invites us to reconsider the fundamental things in life: the nature of time and love, society and norms, knowledge and faith.
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Herta Müller
Almost everything Herta Müller writes is about life under Ceauşescu's Romanian dictatorship, its fear and betrayal and constant surveillance.
© The Nobel Foundation. Photo: U. Montan
Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka's background and upbringing in the small Nigerian town of Aké, with a mixture of traditional and western traditions, gave him unusual conditions for a literary career.
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Quick facts about the Nobel Prize in Literature
110 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded during the years.
4 Literature Prizes have been shared between two persons.
14 women have been awarded the Literature Prize so far.
41 years was the age of the youngest Literature Laureate ever, Rudyard Kipling, best known for The Jungle Book.
88 years was the age of the oldest Literature Laureate ever, Doris Lessing, when she was awarded the Prize in 2007.
Prizes and Laureates
See all Nobel Laureates in Literature 1901-2017 and why they were awarded the Nobel Prize.
Prize awarders
In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established.
Mario Vargas Llosa reads from 'The Storyteller'
"I first became acquainted with the Amazon jungle halfway through 1958 ..."
Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010 Literature Laureate, reads an excerpt from 'The Storyteller' ('El Hablador').
Celebrating World Book Day 2019
Six master storytellers on the power of books
Here six master storytellers reflect on the power of books - celebrating the written world of human experience and imagination.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2019
The Nobel Prize in Literature will once again be awarded, and this autumn Laureates for both 2018 and 2019 will be announced. The Nobel Foundation's Board of Directors believes that the steps that the Swedish Academy has taken and intends to take will create good opportunities for restoring trust in the Academy as a prize-awarding institution.
The door at the Swedish Academy.
© Nobel Media. Photo: K. Svanholm.
Women who changed science
Nineteen inspiring stories
Marie Curie harnessed the promise of radioactivity. Rita Levi-Montalcini redefined how our bodies work. Tu Youyou’s breakthrough malaria treatment saved the lives of millions around the world. ‘Women who changed science’ celebrates and explores the lives of the remarkable women who have been awarded Nobel Prizes for their scientific achievements.
Discover a new storytelling experience
Nobel Prize Concert
Renowned conductor Herbert Blomstedt will lead the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concert Hall Stockholm on 8 December.
Tickets will be available from 23 May 2019.
Herbert Blomstedt.
Photo: © Martin U.K. Lengemann
Coming up
Inspirational women
Literary mastery, pioneering science, life-saving discoveries and actions for peace and human rights - achievements of women around the world awarded the Nobel Prize.
Nobel Prize nominations
The Norwegian Nobel Committee received 301 candidates for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. 78 of these are organizations.
No person can nominate herself/himself for a Nobel Prize. But who can? And how are these persons chosen?
In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established.
Search among the names of the nominees and nominators, as well as additional information about the nominations 1901-1966.
2019 - International Year of the Periodic Table
"There's antimony, arsenic, aluminium ..."
To celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table, let's take a look back at the time 2003 Chemistry Laureate Peter Agre sang the ‘The elements’ to an audience in St Petersburg, Russia.
2018 Nobel Prizes
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded with one half to Arthur Ashkin "for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems" and the other half jointly to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland "for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses".
© Johan Jarnestad / The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded with one half to Frances H. Arnold "for the directed evolution of enzymes" and the other half jointly to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter "for the phage display of peptides and antibodies."
© Johan Jarnestad / The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo "for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation."
© The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. Illustrator: Mattias Karlén
The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict."
Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad
Ill. Niklas Elmehed. © Nobel Media
The 2018 Prize in Economic Sciences was divided equally between William D. Nordhaus "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis" and Paul M. Romer "for integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis."
© Johan Jarnestad / The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
904 individuals and 24 organizations have been awarded Nobel Prizes so far. See the full list of all Nobel Laureates, awarded for "the benefit of humankind".
May-Britt Moser receiving her Nobel Prize from His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
Copyright © Nobel Media AB 2014, Photo: Niklas Elmehed
Nobel Prize Lessons
Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and work are a fascinating part of an important stage of 20th-century history. His ideas extend far beyond his own time and the society in which he lived. Discrimination and conflicts because of skin colour or ethnicity manifest themselves in a variety of contexts in our own world.
A new Nobel Prize Lesson is now available and ready to use in the classroom
Martin Luther King Jr. marching past Browns Chapel in Selma, Alabama.
Photo © Flip Schulke/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
What are you looking for? Search the website.
Alfred Nobel - Established the Nobel Prize
On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will in Paris, France. The Swedish dynamite millionaire, who thought that his invention would end all wars, had now realised that it was a very deadly product. Wanting to make amends, he did what no man of such wealth had done before ...
On 10 December 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded, in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. Read more about the first prizes.
Chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel left 31 million SEK (today about 265 million dollar) to fund the Nobel Prizes. Read more about his life and work.
Nobel destinations
Stockholm, Sweden
The museum showcases the discoveries and creativity of the Nobel Laureates.
Photo: Åke Eson Lindman
Oslo, Norway
The story of each Peace Laureate is told at the museum.
Photo: Johannes Granseth / Nobel Peace Center
In memoriam
Paul Greengard passed away on 13 April. He was awarded the 2000 Medicine Prize for his discovery of how dopamine and a number of other transmitters exert their action in the nervous system. Paul Greengard was 93 years old.
David J. Thouless was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2016. His discoveries have brought about breakthroughs in the theoretical understanding of matter’s mysteries.
Medicine Laureate Sydney Brenner, awarded for his discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death, passed away on 5 April, age 92.
Physics Laureate Zhores I. Alferov passed away on 1 March. His Nobel Prize awarded work laid the foundation of modern information technology, IT.
