(EFE).- The 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, the Swedish Academy announced Thursday.
Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy Sara Danius made the announcement, extolling Dylan’s quality as a poet and comparing him to some Greek bards of antiquity.
Dylan, whose real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, has been active in the music industry for over five decades and is renowned for the poetic storytelling nature of his lyrics.
The Academy said he was awarded “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

This is the first time a musician is awarded the Literature Nobel Prize.
Among songs that made him famous are “House of the Rising Sun,” “The Times They Are a-Changin”, in which Dylan told Americans “your sons and your daughters are beyond your command” and ended up becoming and anthem of the civil rights movement on Vietnam War protests,  and “Hurricane.”
The words to his songs were published under several volumes titled “Lyrics,” and he has also written the first part of his three-volume memoir “Chronicles” and an experimental prose poetry book “Tarantula.”
The Academy highlighted that, as an artist, he has always been versatile, and along with singing and writing, he has painted, acted and written film scripts.
Dylan will receive a diploma, a medal and eight million Swedish kroner ($1 million).
Last year, the Academy gave the Nobel Literature Prize to Svetlana Alexievich, for the first time awarding someone for their journalistic work.
All six Nobel Prizes are traditionally announced within the same week, however this year’s Literature Prize was delayed.
Historical recipients of the coveted accolade include Mario Vargas Llosa, Doris Lessing and Toni Morrison.

 

Literature laureate in 1997 and acclaimed playwright Dario Fo died on Thursday at the age of 90.