- The Swedish Academy has selected South Korean novelist Han Kang for the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. Han Kang is the first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- She is the second South Korean to win the Nobel Prize after former President Kim Dae-Jung. President Kim Dae-Jung was conferred the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000.
- Han Kang will receive her 11 million Kroner prize at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on 10 December 2024, Alfred Nobel’s death anniversary.
Nobel Prize winner Han Kang
- The 2016 International Booker Prize-winning novelist Han Kang was selected by the Swedish Academy “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
- 53-year-old Han Kang, who writes in Korean, published her first poems in a magazine in 1993 and her first short story collection in 1995.
- Her novel ‘The Vegetarian’ brought her international recognition and the 2016 International Booker Prize.
- Her important works include Your Cold Hands, Greek Lessons, Human Acts, The White Book, etc.
Some Important Facts Related to Nobel Prize in Literature
- 121 individuals have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1901–2024.
- The Nobel Prize in Literature has been shared between two laureates on four occasions only in 1904, 1917, 1966 and 1974. However, No one has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.
- Rudyard Kipling is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, having won the award in 1907 at the age of 41.
- Doris Lessing was the oldest person to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, receiving it at the age of 87 in the year 2007.
- 18 women have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was the first woman to be awarded in 1909.
- Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian Nobel Laureate and also remains the only Indian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, having won it in 1913.
- He was also the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.