Nobel Prize permanent secretary Sara Danius announced the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2016.
The winner is Bob Dylan, which came as a surprise for everyone. The legendary musician was awarded for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.
The Nobel Prize’s distinctive feature is the closed selection process. The list of candidates and the name of the winner are kept in secret until the announcement. Bookmakers, who reflected the opinion of experts and ordinary people, named Kenian author, playwright and political writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said Esber also known as Adonis among favourites.
Other names were mentioned, but the legendary singer-songwriter wasn’t among them. However, it shouldn’t surprise anyone, as the Nobel Committee and the Swedish Academy can keep the public in suspense and offer a very unexpected ending. Perhaps, the only year when bookmakers managed predict the winner was 2015, when the prize was awarded to Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, who had been at the top of rating lists for a long time.
Bob Dylan was born in Minnesota in 1941. He began to write and perform his songs in 1962. He has recorded 35 studio albums, created works that became iconic for modern culture and became a cult figure in rock music. Dylan, who is now 75, continues to play concerts. He released a new record entitled Fallen Angels in 2016. He is also a visual artist, writer and actor. Bob Dylan won nine Grammy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Golden Globe and the Academy Award. He was inducted int the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded since 1901. Candidates are selected by the Nobel Committee, and laureates are chosen by the Swedish Academy. The Swedish Academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III to support and promote the Swedish language and literature. The Academy consists of 18 members elected by permanent academy members for life. At the moment, one post in the Academy remains vacant, so the decision on the Nobel Prize winner is taken by 17 members.
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