Her poetry focuses on the painful reality of being human, dealing with themes such as death, childhood, and family life.
Clarion India
STOCKHOLM — American poet Louise Gluck was on Thursday awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2020 “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”.
Her poetry focuses on the painful reality of being human, dealing with themes such as death, childhood, and family life.
She also takes inspiration from Greek mythology and its characters, such as Persephone and Eurydice, who are often the victims of betrayal.
The New York-born Gluck, 77, is the 16th woman to win the prestigious prize and the first American to receive it since singer-lyricist Bob Dylan in 2016.
She lives in Massachusetts and is also professor of English at Yale University. She had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for her collection The Wild Iris and the National Book Award in 2014.
Her other honours include the 2001 Bollingen Prize for Poetry, the Wallace Stevens Award, given in 2008, and a National Humanities Medal, awarded in 2015.
Gluck will receive 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million) for the award, which was announced at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.
(With media inputs)
