Nobel Prize In Literature 2020: Louise Gluck, An American Poet Awarded For Her Unmistakable Poetic Voice

American Poet Louise Gluck Won The 2020 Nobel Prize In Literature For Works Exploring Family And Childhood In An “Unmistakable…Voice That With Austere Beauty Makes individual existence universal”, the Swedish Academy said on October 8. Academy Permanent Secretary Mats Malm said that Gluck, 77, also a multiple winner of US literary awards, was “surprised and happy” at the news when it came in the early morning hours US time. "My first thought was I won't have any friends, because most of my friends are writers," that's what Gluck said during an interview. A professor of English at Yale University, Gluck first rose to critical acclaim with her 1968 collection of poems entitled “Firstborn”, and went on to become one of the most celebrated poets and essayists in contemporary America. The Swedish Academy said that in Gluck’s works “the self listens for what is left of its dreams and delusions, and nobody can be harder than she in confronting illusions of the self”. Drawing comparisons with other authors, the Academy said Gluck resembled 19th-century US poet Emily Dickinson in her “severity and unwillingness to accept simple tenets of faith”. Born in New York, 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. Gluck’s Nobel prize followed years of controversy surrounding the literature award, but Academy Permanent Secretary Mats Malm sidestepped questions about whether Gluck was chosen to address any related concerns. Watch the video to know more about Louise Gluck.