Jon Fosse has won the 2023 Nobel Prize in literature, "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable."
The 64-year-old playwright is not well-known outside his home country of Norway, where he was born on the western coast in the city of Haugesund. But the author is internationally celebrated in literary circles and has been called "the most produced living playwright." He has won prestigious European awards and has long been fully subsidized by the Norway government, with a lifetime stipend and a residence near the Royal Palace in Oslo. In 2007 he was made a Knight in France's National Order of Merit.
In its citation, the Nobel committee wrote, "His immense oeuvre, written in Norwegian Nynorsk and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children's books and translations. While he is today one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world, he has also become increasingly recognised for his prose."
