Nobel Prize in Literature 2021

• The 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.

Key facts: 

• The novelist was awarded with the Prize for his uncompromising & compassionate penetration of “effects of colonialism” and fate of refugees in the gulf between cultures & continents. 

• He is the author of 10 novels and several short stories and essays, including Memory of Departure (1987), Pilgrims Way (1988), Paradise (1994), By the Sea (2001), Desertion (2005), Gravel Heart (2017) and, most recently, Afterlives (2020).

• His writing explores the immigrant experience and how exile and loss shape identities and cultures. 

• Most of his books feature African Arab protagonists trying to come to terms with dislocation and estrangement, looking in on societies and cultures on which their holds are tenuous. 

NOTE: The 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature was given to American poet Louise Gluck, who is professor of English at Yale University. He was awarded for her unmistakable poetic voice.