Norwegian author Jon Fosse is a novelist, essayist, poet, children’s author but also a playwright, and he just won the Nobel Prize in Literature on 5 October 2023.
The Swedish Academy said on Thursday it was for his “innovative plays and prose which gives voice to the unsayable”. Besides the prize itself, Fosse also receives 11 million Swedish kronor.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre posted: “All of Norway congratulates and is proud today.” He then wrote that the prize was “a great recognition of a unique authorship that makes an impression and touches people all over the world”.
Less is more
The 64-year-old Fosse’s major works, written in the Nynorsk variation of Norwegian, include the Septology series of novels, Aliss at the Fire, Melancholy and A Shining.
Generally speaking, Fosse enjoys showcasing humanity, rather than characters. He thinks what is not being said is far more important than what is being said. It’s that type of ‘silence’ his work is known for.
“What is special with him is the closeness in his writing,” Nobel committee chairman Anders Olsson had said, according to BBC.
It touches on the deepest feelings that you have – anxieties, insecurities, questions of life and death – such things that every human being actually confronts from the very beginning.”
Source: Bangkok Post and BBC
