U.S. 'family' poet wins Nobel Prize for Literature
American poet Louise Gluck won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature for her works exploring family and childhood.
Academy Permanent Secretary Mats Malm said Gluck was, quote, "surprised and happy" at the news when it came in the early morning hours in the U.S..
The 77-year-old Yale professor first rose to critical acclaim with her 1986 collection of poems entitled "Firstborn".
She went on to become one of the most celebrated poets in contemporary America, winning multiple U.S. literary awards, including the U.S. Pulitzer Prize in 1993.
The Academy said Gluck's work resembled 19th-century U.S. poet Emily Dickinson in her "severity and unwillingness to accept simple tenets of faith".
Gluck becomes the 16th woman to win the literary world's most prestigious distinction since the Nobel prizes were launched more than a century ago.
While she draws on her own experiences in her poetry, Gluck, who is twice divorced and suffered from anorexia in younger years, explores universal themes that resonate with readers in the United States and abroad.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama honoured Gluck with the National Medal of Arts and Humanities.
