Israel Science and Technology Directory

Jewish Nobel Prize winners in Literature

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YearNobel LaureateCountry of birth
2020Glück, Louise
"for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal"
USA
2016Dylan, Bob
"for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"
USA
2005Pinter, Harold
"who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms"
UK
2002Kertesz, Imre
"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"
Hungary
1991Gordimer, Nadine
"who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity"
South Africa
1987Brodsky, Joseph
"for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity"
Russia
1981Canetti, Elias
"for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power"
Bulgaria
1978Singer, Isaac Bashevis
"for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life"
Poland
1976Bellow, Saul
"for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work"
Canada
1966Sachs, Nelly
"for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength"
Germany
1966Agnon, Shmuel Yosef
"for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people"
Ukraine
1958Pasternak, Boris L.
"for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition"
Russia
1927Bergson, Henri
"in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented"
France
1910Heyse, Paul
"as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories"
Germany

Total number of Jewish Laureates: 14