US songwriter Bob Dylan wins Nobel Literature Prize

STOCKHOLM: American music legend Bob Dylan today won the Nobel Literature Prize, the first songwriter to win the prestigious award and an announcement that stunned prize watchers.nnDylan, 75, was honoured “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” the Swedish Academy said.nnThe choice was met by gasps and a long round of applause from journalists attending the prize announcement.nnThe folk singer has been mentioned in Nobel speculation in past years, but was never seen as a serious contender.nnThe Academy’s permanent secretary Sara Danius said Dylan’s songs were “poetry for the ears.”nnThe Nobel award is the latest accolade for a singer who has come a long way from his humble beginnings as Robert Allen Zimmerman, born in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, who taught himself to play the harmonica, guitar and piano.nnLast year, the prize went to Belarussian author Svetlana Alexievich, for her documentary-style narratives based on witness testimonies.nnDylan will take home the eight million kronor (USD 906,000 or 822,000 euros) prize sum.nnThe literature award caps the 2016 Nobel season, following more than a week of announcements for the prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, economics and peace, with the latter going to Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to end a half-century war with the FARC rebels.nnThe 2016 laureates will receive their awards — a gold medal and a diploma — at a formal ceremony in Stockholm as tradition dictates on December 10, the anniversary of the death of prize creator Alfred Nobel.nnA separate ceremony is held in Oslo for the peace prize laureate on the same day, as the Norwegian Nobel Committee grants that award.nnSource: Press Trust of India