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American Poet Louise Gluck Wins 2020 Nobel Literature Prize

Louise Gluck, an American poet and a professor of English at Yale University, won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.

American Poet Louise Gluck Wins 2020 Nobel Literature Prize
Louise Gluck Source: Niklas Elmehed/Nobel Media

Louise Gluck, an American poet and a professor of English at Yale University, won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.

Gluck, who was born in 1943, was awarded the prize for “her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal,” the Swedish Academy in Stockholm said in a statement on Thursday.

Gluck made her debut in 1968 with ‘Firstborn’ and was soon acclaimed as one of the most prominent poets in American contemporary literature, the academy said. She has published 12 collections of poetry and some volumes of essays on poetry.

Annual prizes for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, peace and literature were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896. The prize in economic sciences was added by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.

Last year’s literature prize went to Peter Handke of Austria, for his work exploring the “periphery and the specificity of human experience.” Previous laureates include Bob Dylan, Samuel Beckett, John Steinbeck and Winston Churchill.

The Nobel Foundation announced last month it was increasing the amount awarded for individual prizes to 10 million kronor ($1.1 million), from 9 million kronor previously, to reflect a rise in the returns generated on its capital.

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