[The JRB Daily] Norwegian author and dramatist Jon Fosse receives the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Norwegian playwright, novelist and poet Jon Fosse. The Swedish Academy said the…
Tag: Nobel Prize in Literature
‘A superb macaron of darkly satirical fiction’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Helen DeWitt’s new novella The English Understand Wool
Wamuwi Mbao reviews The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt, a book that contains ‘one of the most alarmingly enjoyable…
[The JRB Daily] Annie Ernaux receives the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature
French author Annie Ernaux has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced today in Stockholm….
Wole Soyinka vs Caroline Davis—The CIA Controversy by Adekeye Adebajo
In 2020, Caroline Davis, a British scholar, now based at England’s University College London, published the book African Literature and…
[Fiction Issue] ‘Khalifa did not suspect with what nostalgia he would remember those days in later life’—Read an excerpt from Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives
The JRB presents an excerpt from Afterlives, the new novel from Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in…
‘Often we know ourselves and other people by the stories we construct’—Abdulrazak Gurnah on how to write fiction
Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah received the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, an announcement that came as a welcome surprise to…
[The JRB Daily] ‘I thought it was a prank, I really did’—Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah wins 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah. Gurnah becomes the first Black African…
[The JRB Daily] Louise Glück wins the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature
American poet Louise Glück has won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. The award was announced by the Swedish Academy…
Tyranny of place, tyranny of time: Remembering Es’kia Mphahlele in his centenary year, by Mmatshilo Motsei
Mmatshilo Motsei pays tribute to Es’kia Mphahlele, one hundred years after his birth. I first encountered Es’kia Mphahlele when, in…
[The JRB Daily] Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke win the 2018 and 2019 Nobel Prizes in Literature
Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and Austrian author Peter Handke have won the Nobel Prizes in Literature. The announcement was made…
[The JRB Daily] How is the Nobel Prize in Literature decided? The Nobel Committee reveals new, less ‘Eurocentric’ and ‘male-centred’ criteria
Every year, speculation abounds about which author will win the Nobel Prize in Literature. This year, the Nobel Committee have…
Toni Morrison, 1931—2019, RIP
Toni Morrison, celebrated novelist and Nobel Laureate, has died, aged eighty-eight. Morrison passed away at the Montefiore Medical Center in…
[City Editor] Niq Mhlongo laments the caprice—and celebrates the excitement—of literary awards, and shares his own bittersweet experience
City Editor Niq Mhlongo, having just won his first South African prize, shares his gripes and observations on that strange…
Read an excerpt from What Is Africa to Me? by Guadeloupean author Maryse Condé, winner of the ‘alternative Nobel’ literature prize
A giant of black feminist writing and thought, Maryse Condé was recently awarded the New Academy Prize in Literature, a…
Maryse Condé receives The New Academy Prize in Literature, aka the ‘Alternative Nobel’
On 12 October, Maryse Condé was announced as the winner of the New Academy Prize in Literature, an award created…
[The JRB Daily] Remembering VS Naipaul in South Africa
VS Naipaul, who died aged eighty-five on Saturday, spent some months in South Africa in 2009, researching his final book….
Seoul and Sky: JMG Le Clézio’s new novel, Bitna, sous le ciel de Séoul
2008 Nobel Prize-winning Franco-Mauritian author JMG Le Clézio has dipped his pen into the world of transnational literature again, but…
‘The Academy is no concentration camp’: Chairperson of the Nobel Committee for Literature Per Wästberg talks to The JRB about the current sexual abuse scandal
Maureen Isaacson reports from Stockholm, Sweden, on the latest developments around the scandal engulfing the Nobel Prize in Literature. The…
[The JRB Daily] Exclusive to The JRB: Photographs from the protest against the Nobel Prize in Literature sexual harassment scandal
The Swedish Academy, responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature, is currently being rocked by a sexual abuse and…
[The JRB Daily] Kazuo Ishiguro wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
English author Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The announcement was made by the Swedish Academy this…
[The JRB Daily] Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is the favourite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature—again
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is odds-on favourite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature this week. The JRB’s Editor Jennifer Malec…