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The Nobel Prize is an international award given yearly since 1901 for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and for peace. In 1968, the Bank of Sweden instituted the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize.

2009 Herta Muller

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2009 is awarded to the German author Herta Muller "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed".

2008 Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2008 is awarded to the French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization".

2007 Doris Lessing

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2007 is awarded to the English writer Doris Lessing "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".

2006 Orhan Pamuk

The Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.

2005 Harold Pinter

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2005 is awarded to the English writer Harold Pinter "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms".

2004 Elfriede Jelinek

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2004 is awarded to the Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek "for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's cliches and their subjugating power".

2003 J.M. Coetzee

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2003 is awarded to the South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee "who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider".

2002 Imre Kertesz

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2002 is awarded to the Hungarian writer Imre Kertesz "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history".

2001 V.S. Naipaul

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2001 is awarded to the British writer, born in Trinidad, V. S. Naipaul "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".

2000 Gao Xingjian

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2000 goes to the Chinese writer Gao Xingjian "for an euvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama".

1999 Gunter Grass

Nobel Prize for Literature 1999 goes to the German writier Gunter Grass "Whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history".

1998 Jose Saramago

The Nobel Prize for Literature 1998 goes to the Portugese writer Jose Saramago "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality".

1997 Dario Fo

The Nobel Prize for Literature 1997 goes to the Italian writer Dario Fo "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden".

1996 Wislawa Szymborska

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1996 goes to the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality".