American poet Louise Glück wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - American poet Louise Glück has won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The judges praised the writer "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal".

The prize was announced in Stockholm by Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.

Glück, 77, made her debut in 1968 with Firstborn, soon becoming one of the most prominent poets in American literature, with later works including The Wild Iris and Snowdrops.

The New York-born poet's works are “characterised by a striving for clarity,” often focusing on childhood and family life, and close relationship with parents and siblings, the Academy said.

It noted her 2006 collection Averno, calling it “masterly” and “a visionary interpretation of the myth of Persephone’s descent into hell in the captivity of Hades, the god of death.”

In 2015, then-US president Barack Obama awarded Glück the National Humanities Medal "for giving lyrical expression to our inner conflicts".

Glück is a safe choice for the prestigious award after last year's winner, Austrian novelist Peter Handke, unleashed a flood of criticism, leaving many wondering how it could award a writer known for supporting Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the Balkan wars and playing down his army's atrocities.

That selection came on the back of a devastating, drawn-out scandal after the husband of one of the literary institution’s members was jailed for rape.

The scandal, which erupted in 2017, forced it to postpone the 2018 prize - a first in 70 years.

The Academy defended its choice of Handke as one based solely on literary merit.

The culture editor of Sweden's biggest daily Bjorn Wiman called the choice of Handke "terribly bad", adding: "If the Academy knows what is good for them, they'll choose Jamaica Kincaid this year.”

With themes like colonialism, racism and gender, "her stance on various moral and political issues are absolutely worth listening to today," he said.

On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize for physiology and medicine for a decisive contribution in work on the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus. Tuesday’s prize for physics honoured a breakthrough in understanding the mysteries of cosmic black holes, and the chemistry prize on Wednesday went to scientists behind a powerful gene-editing tool.

Still to come are awards for outstanding work in the fields of peace and economics.

The Nobel Prize comes with a medal and a sum of 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, or £872,000).

Normally, the winner receives the Nobel from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, but because of the pandemic that has been replaced by a televised ceremony showing the laureates receiving their awards in their home countries.