Songwriter Bob Dylan wins Literature Nobel

The Nobel Prize for Literature 2016 goes to American songwriter, 
artist and writer Bob Dylan, "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".


Dylan (75) has been influential in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when his songs chronicled social unrest, although Dylan repudiated suggestions from journalists that he was a spokesman for his generation. Nevertheless, early songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war movements.


American novelist Don DeLillo emerged as an outside contender for the Nobel prize in literature -- at least in the minds of the betting public. The prize was announced by Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.


The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".108 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded since 1901. It was not awarded on seven occasions: in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, and 1943.


The nominations and the opinions written by the members of the Nobel Committee in Literature each year are kept secret for 50 years.


In the statutes of the Nobel Foundation it says: "If none of the works under consideration is found to be of the importance indicated in the first paragraph, the prize money shall be reserved until the following year. If, even then, the prize cannot be awarded, the amount shall be added to the Foundation's restricted funds."


During World War I and II, fewer Nobel Prizes were awarded.The youngest Literature Laureate is Rudyard Kipling, best known for The Jungle Book. He was just 41 years when awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907. Dario Fo who passed away today at age 90. was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature.