Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize, but he’s been on the short list for years
I am delighted that Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature. Shock has been expressed by some and it’s the first time the award has gone to a musician, but, as I reported back in 2013, he has been on the short list for a good few years.
The academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said that while Dylan performs his poetry in the form of songs, that’s no different from the ancient Greeks, whose works were often performed to music.
If you want to know more about how Nobel Prize winners are chosen check out this post.
Here’s the last 20 years of winners:
2016 Bob Dylan, United States
2015 Svetlana Alexievich, Belarus
2014 Patrick Modiano, France
2013 Alice Munro, Canada
2012 Mo Yan, China
2011 Tomas Tranströmer, Sweden
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru
2009 Herta Müller, Germany
2008 Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, France
2007 Doris Lessing, Britain
2006 Orhan Pamuk, Turkey
2005 Harold Pinter, Britain
2004 Elfriede Jelinek, Austria
2003 JM Coetzee, South Africa
2002 Imre Kertesz, Hungary
2001 VS Naipaul, Trinidad-born British
2000 Gao Xingjian, Chinese-born French
1999 Günter Grass, Germany
1998 José Saramago, Portugal
1997 Dario Fo, Italy
1996 Wislawa Szymborska, Poland
1995 Seamus Heaney, Ireland
1994 Kenzaburo Oe, Japan
1993 Toni Morrison, United States
1992 Derek Walcott, St Lucia
1991 Nadine Gordimer, South Africa
1990 Octavio Paz, Mexico
1989 Camilo José Cela, Spain
1988 Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt
1987 Joseph Brodsky, Russian-American
1986 Wole Soyinka, Nigeria
4 comments on “Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize, but he’s been on the short list for years”
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Reblogged this on Routine Matters.
Have always dug Dylan (most especially his 1986 studio album “Knocked out Loaded” which, on one track, contains the immortal line – “That movie had completeness!”
Well done Bob.
Agree Glen. Dylan earned it.
Thanks for reblogging Chris