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2009 Nobel Prize for Literature: And the winner is…Herta Mueller
Posted by draabe on 8 October, 2009
© The Nobel Foundation
The Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature has awarded the honor of 2009 Nobel Laureate to German author Herta Mueller. Mueller was born in Romania, Nitzkydorf and is known for writing about life under the Communist Romanian regime of Nicolae Ceausesc.
“I am very surprised and still cannot believe it,” Mueller said in a statement released by her publisher in Germany. “I can’t say anything more at the moment.“
According to Nobelprize.org, laureates are awarded ”a Nobel Prize Medal, Nobel Prize Diploma and a confirmation document confirming the Nobel Prize amount from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Ceremonies will be held on the 10th of December.” Since 2001, the monetary prize has remained 10,000,000 Swedish Krona, which amounts to $1,419,445.63 USD.
French author and professor Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio won the 2008 Nobel for Literature. The Academy named Le Clézio the “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization”. British author Doris Lessing took the prize in 2007, and Turkish author Orhan Pamuk was the 2006 winner. The first winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to poet and philosopher Sully Prudhomme in 1901. See Nobelprize.org for a list of all Nobel Laureates in Literature.
Read more about Herta Mueller at The Washington Post and Nobelprize.org.
infloox said
I think the Americans really aren’t too pleased about not winning again, but in all fairness, Muller deserved it, even though she’s not widely known outside of some European countries. I posted about her on my blog and included some further insight into her career and literary influences since most articles only seemed to include the basic facts…
draabe said
Thank you for the link! I am quite ill at the moment and unable to write more about this very deserving author. With the understandably secretive nature of The Swedish Academy, there was no way to do the proper amount of research on Mueller ahead of time. Incidentally, I am half German and half Swedish – and commend the Academy for their choice this year.