English Section

Poland's Olga Tokarczuk picks up Nobel Prize for literature in Stockholm

10.12.2019 18:09
Polish Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk on Tuesday picked up her diploma and gold medal from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden at a glittering ceremony in Stockholm.
Olga Tokarczuk receives the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature from King Carl XVI Gustaf (right) of Sweden in Stockholm Concert Hall
Olga Tokarczuk receives the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature from King Carl XVI Gustaf (right) of Sweden in Stockholm Concert Hall Photo: EPA/Jonas Ekstromer

The Polish author, who was named the winner of the 2018 Nobel prize in literature in October, was the tenth laureate to appear on the podium on Tuesday at the international awards ceremony.

She was wearing a long black, velvet dress.

The last time a Pole won the Nobel literature prize was in 1996, when the award went to poet Wisława Szymborska.

Tokarczuk joins an elite list of previous Polish winners which comprises literary heavyweights Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905), Władysław Reymont (1924) and Czesław Miłosz (1980).

The Swedish Academy said in October that Tokarczuk had won the Nobel "for a narrative imagination that with encyclopaedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life."

The academy added that her "magnum opus" was the historical novel The Books of Jacob.

Tokarczuk’s work has won international praise from critics and has also proved popular with the reading public.

(pk)

Source: PAP