Legendary songwriter Bob Dylan has been awarded a 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. The news was announced via Twitter this morning, because, well, the times they are a’ changin’.
“[Dylan] is a great poet in the English-speaking tradition,” says The Swedish Academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, via CNN. “If you look back, far back, 2,500 years or so, you discover Homer and Sappho and they wrote poetic texts that were meant to be listened to, that were meant to be performed, often with instruments — and it’s the same way with Bob Dylan.”
Dylan has won 10 Grammys (including Album of the Year), one Golden Globe and one Academy Award. Eight years ago he scored a Pulitzer Prize special citation for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”
Danius cited the 75-year-old’s 1966 album Blonde on Blonde, as a proper starting point for new fans, praising its “many examples of his brilliant way of rhyming.” CNN reports Dylan was a 50/1 longshot to win the award by bookmaker Ladbrokes.
Dylan is reported to have beaten out Japanese author Haruki Murakami, American novelist Philip Roth, and Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Though, as CNN notes, the list of nominees will be kept secret for the next half-century. Dylan is the 108th recipient of what CNN has called “the most prestigious literature award in the world.”
The musician’s latest release, The 1966 Live Recordings 36-Disc Box Set, is out November 11.
BREAKING 2016 #NobelPrize in Literature to Bob Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” pic.twitter.com/XYkeJKRfhv
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 13, 2016