Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics,
chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The Nobel Prize is an
international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. Alfred
Nobel had broad cultural interests. The interest that he developed in literature during
his early youth lasted throughout his life. Evidence of Nobel's literary interest
shows itself during the last years of his life, when he began writing fiction. The
very first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1901 to the French poet and philosopher
Sully Prudhomme, who in his poetry showed the "rare combination of the qualities of
both heart and intellect". Over the years, the Nobel Prize in Literature has distinguished
the works of authors from many different languages and cultural backgrounds. The Literature
Prize has been awarded to unknown masters as well as authors acclaimed worldwide.
The
2012 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Chinese author Mo Yan. Professor Peter
Englund, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy made the announcement in Stockholm.
Mo Yan's latest novel, 'Frog', looks at China's population control policy, it won
him the Mao Dun Literature Prize - China's most prestigious last year. Mo Yan and
the other Nobel laureates for medicine, physics, chemistry and peace, to be awarded
Friday, will receive their prizes at formal ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on 10
December - the anniversary of the death of prize creator Alfred Nobel in 1896. Listen
to this report from regional correspondent Matthew French: