American poet Louise Gluck wins the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to American poet Louise Gluck on Thursday “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal,” the Nobel Foundation announced.

The works by 2020 Literature Laureate Louise Gluck are characterised by a striving for clarity. Childhood and family life, the close relationship with parents and siblings, is a thematic that has remained central with her.

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

The Nobel Literature prize was the fourth prize to be awarded this year, after the awards in Chemistry on Wednesday, Physics on Tuesday and in Physiology or Medicine on Monday.

The winners were awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden.

In 2019, the award was given to Peter Handke “for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.”