The Norwegian novelist, poet and playwright Jon Fosse — who has found a growing audience in the English-speaking world for novels that grapple with themes of aging, mortality, love and art was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday(5 October 2023), “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”

• A prolific writer who has published some 40 plays, as well as novels, poetry, essays, children’s books and works of translation, Fosse has long been revered for his spare, transcendent language and formal experimentation.
• In a news conference on Thursday, Anders Olsson, the chairman of the Nobel literature committee, praised “Fosse’s sensitive language, which probes the limits of words.”
• Fosse’s work has been translated into around 50 languages and he is among the world’s most widely performed living playwrights.