South Korean author Han Kang has won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for his “deeply poetic prose that confronts the traumas of history and exposes the fragility of human life,” the awarding body said Thursday.
The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 11 million Swedish kroner, equivalent to $1.45 million Cdn.
The Nobel Prize was established by the wealthy Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who stated in his will that his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, in the previous year, have provided the greatest benefit to mankind.” The first awards were given out in 1901.
Past book winners have included Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw, Herman Hesse, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Neruda and Toni Morrison. Last year’s Nobel was awarded to Norwegian writer and dramatist Jon Fosse.
Over the years, the literary prize has also chosen winners beyond the tradition of novels, including playwrights, historians, philosophers and poets, until they restarted by receiving the prize for singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 2016.
Nobel Prizes are awarded to winners on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced by the chairman of the Nobel committee in Oslo on Friday, and the Nobel committee will announce this year’s economics prize on Monday.
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