The Swedish Academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said Dylan, 75, “is a great poet in the English-speaking tradition.” She drew parallels between his work and that of ancient Greek poets Homer and Sappho.
“If you look back, far back, 2,500 years or so, you discover Homer and Sappho and they wrote poetic texts that were meant to be listened to, that were meant to be performed, often with instruments — and it’s the same way with Bob Dylan,” she said.
Although Dylan is not in the established canon of literary writers, Danius praised his creative output over five decades, including his constant reinvention of himself.
Dylan, 75, was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1941, and released his first album, “Bob Dylan,” in 1962.
Since then, he’s collected 10 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, one Golden Globe and one Academy Award.
In 2008, he won a Pulitzer Prize special citation for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”
He becomes the 108th winner of the most prestigious literature award in the world.
