Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 awarded to South Korea's Han Kang for her 'intense poetic prose'

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to South Korean author Han Kang, recognised for her "intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life." The announcement was made by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, highlighting Kang's impactful contributions to contemporary literature.

Born in 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea, Kang moved to Seoul with her family at the age of nine. She hails from a literary lineage, with her father being a noted novelist, which influenced her early artistic endeavours. The Nobel committee noted that alongside her writing, Kang has also devoted significant time to art and music, elements that resonate throughout her body of work.

Since its inception in 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded 116 times to 120 laureates. This year's recognition adds another prominent voice to that distinguished list.

The Nobel Prize announcements for 2024 began earlier with the Medicine Prize awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their groundbreaking discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Following this, the winners of the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry were also revealed.