Herta Muller Wins The Nobel Prize in Literature

Romanian born poet and novelist Herta Muller was today announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy described Muller as an author who “depicts the landscape of the dispossessed”. Her writing style is often described as bleak, sparse and poetic.

Muller’s win came as a surprise. Only a few of her works have been translated into English and while she is much admired in her native Germany, she has not been seen as a global literary force. However this fits with the trend of the Academy over the past decade or so of choosing largely un-read authors.

Muller was born in 1953. As a German speaking person she was a minority in Romania, and this exile from the norm would later affect her work. At University she fought for freedom of speech under Ceausescu’s regime. In 1982 her first work was published, a collection of short stories. It was delayed then heavily censored and derided by critics, but Muller managed to take a copy to Germany where it found great acclaim. Muller has lived in Berlin since 1987 and has had more than 20 books published since.