Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter has been awarded 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. Dylan decades long career in music has transcend several genres.
The 75-year-old-musician was honored on Thursday by the Swedish Academy for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
That made him the first American to win the prize since 1993, when novelist Toni Morrison was honored by the Nobel academy. He also became the first true musician to win the literature prize since it was first awarded in 1901, said Odd Zschiedrich, administrative director of the Swedish Academy.
“No one has had music so prominently in their work,” Mr. Zschiedrich said.
During a career spanning more than five decades, much of Mr. Dylan’s work has chronicled social unrest, with early songs of poetic defiance and incandescent imagery such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” becoming anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements.
For years, his concerts began with an announcement that introduced him (perhaps ironically) as the “poet laureate of rock ’n’ roll.”
Although Mr. Dylan has been cited as a possible candidate for the Nobel for many years, Thursday’s award came as a surprise.
Belarusian author and journalist Svetlana Alexievich, a longtime critic of the Soviet regime and more recently of the Russian government won the prize in 2015.
The prize comes with an eight million Swedish kronor ($904,000) cash award.
