Bob Dylan wins 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature

The United States singer and songwriter Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, becoming the first musician to be recognized by the Swedish Academy.

The committee wrote in its announcement that Dylan had been awarded the prize “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

Dylan, who is the first US national to receive the prize since novelist Toni Morrison in 1993, has long been thought to be among potential candidates by prize speculators, but no one expected him to win this year.

The Nobel Prize is one among many honors the singer has received, joining a list that includes a Presidential Medal of Freedom, 11 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and an honorary Pulitzer Prize.

Dylan is known for his versatility as a songwriter and a performer, having moved across musical genres that range from an origin in folk music to a transition to electronic guitar and a late country period.

Dylan's career has been prolific, marked by the release of dozens of albums, including Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks and Highway 61 Revisited, and classic songs, such as Knocking on Heaven’s Door and Lay Lady Lay. While music critics have often called the singer a poet, that term has not been their provenance alone. Scholars like former Oxford Professor of Poetry Christopher Ricks among others have trained their focus on Dylan.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to writers who have created “the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.” The Swedish Academy has awarded 113 writers with 109 prizes since the award was established in 1901. This year the prize comes with a purse of around US$900,000.