Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, the awarding body said on Thursday.
The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 11 million crowns ($1.2 million).
Established by the will of the inventor of dynamite and Swedish businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for achievements in literature, science and peace have been awarded since 1901.
“The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai for his compelling and visionary work that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art,” said Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.
Previous winners of the 11 million Swedish krona ($1.2 million) literature prize include French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme, who took first prize, American novelist and short story writer William Faulkner in 1949, British World War II Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1953, Turkish Orhan Pamuk in 2006 and the Norwegian Jon Fosse in 2023.
Last year’s award was won by South Korean author Han Kang, who became the 18th woman, the first being Swedish author Selma Lagerlof in 1909, and the first South Korean to receive the award.
Over the years, decisions made by the Swedish Academy have provoked as much anger as applause.
In 2016, the award to American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan sparked criticism for considering that his work was not strictly literary, while the award to Austrian Peter Handke also sparked criticism in 2019.
Handke had attended the 2006 funeral of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, widely held responsible for the deaths of thousands of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and the displacement of nearly a million more during a brutal war waged by forces under his control in 1998-99.
Laureates have also been accused in the past of being snobbish, having an anti-American bias and ignoring some of the giants of literature, including Russia’s Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, France’s Emile Zola and Ireland’s James Joyce.
