Year Laureate Nation (Place of birth) Language Principal Genre Year Laureate Nation (Place of birth) Language Principal Genre 2013 Alice Munro Canada English Story 1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez Spain Spanish Poetry 2012 Mo Yan China Chinese Novel 1955 Halldór Laxness Iceland Icelandic Novel 2011 Tomas Tranströmer Sweden Swedish Poetry 1954 Ernest Hemingway USA English Novel 2010 Mario Vargas Llosa Peru Spanish Novel 1953 Winston Churchill UK English History 2009 Herta Müller Germany (Romania) German Novel 1952 François Mauriac France French Novel 2008 Jean-Marie Le Clézio France/Mauritius French Novel 1951 Pär Lagerkvist Sweden Swedish Poetry 2007 Doris Lessing UK (Rhodesia) English Novel 1950 Bertrand Russell UK English Philosophy 2006 Orhan Pamuk Turkey Turkish Novel 1949 William Faulkner USA English Novel 2005 Harold Pinter UK English Drama 1948 T.S. Eliot UK (USA) English Poetry 2004 Elfriede Jelinek Austria German Novel 1947 André Gide France French Novel 2003 J. M. Coetzee South Africa English Novel 1946 Hermann Hesse Switzerland (Germany) German Novel 2002 Imre Kertész Hungary Hungarian Novel 1945 Gabriela Mistral Chile Spanish Poetry 2001 V. S. Naipaul UK (Trinidad) English Novel, Essay 1944 Johannes V. Jensen Denmark Danish Poetry/Novel 2000 Gao Xingjian France (China) Chinese Novel 1943 (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) 1999 Günter Grass Germany German Novel 1942 (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) 1998 José Saramago Portugal Portuguese Novel 1941 (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) 1997 Dario Fo Italy Italian Drama 1940 (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) 1996 Wislawa Szymborska Poland Polish Poetry 1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää Finland Finnish Novel 1995 Seamus Heaney Ireland (N. Ireland) English Poetry 1938 Pearl Buck USA English Novel 1994 Kenzaburo Oe Japan Japanese Novel, Essay 1937 Roger Martin du Gard France French Novel 1993 Toni Morrison USA English Novel 1936 Eugene O'Neill USA English Drama 1992 Derek Walcott St. Lucia English Poetry 1935 (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) 1991 Nadine Gordimer South Africa English Novel 1934 Luigi Pirandello Italy Italian Drama 1990 Octavio Paz Mexico Spanish Poetry 1933 Ivan Bunin France (Russia) Russian Novel 1989 Camilo José Cela Spain Spanish Novel 1932 John Galsworthy UK English Novel 1988 Naguib Mahfouz Egypt Arabic Novel 1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt Sweden Swedish Poetry 1987 Joseph Brodsky USSR/USA Russian/English Poetry 1930 Sinclair Lewis USA English Novel 1986 Wole Soyinka Nigeria English Drama 1929 "omas Mann Switzerland (Germany) German Novel 1985 Claude Simon France (Madagascar) French Novel 1928 Sigrid Undset Norway (Denmark) Norwegian Novel 1984 Jaroslav Seifert Czechoslovakia Czech Poetry 1927 Henri Bergson France French Philosophy 1983 William Golding UK English Novel 1926 Grazia Deledda Italy (Sardinia) Italian Novel 1982 Gabriel García Márquez Colombia Spanish Novel 1925 George Bernard Shaw UK (Ireland) English Drama 1981 Elias Canetti UK (Bulgaria) German Prose 1924 Wladyslaw Reymont Poland Polish Novel 1980 Czeslaw Milosz Poland/USA Polish Poetry 1923 William Butler Yeats Ireland (UK/Ireland) English Poetry, Drama 1979 Odysseus Elytis Greece Greek Poetry 1922 Jacinto Benavente Spain Spanish Drama 1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer Poland/USA Yiddish Novel, Story 1921 Anatole France France French Novel 1977 Vicente Aleixandre Spain Spanish Poetry 1920 Knut Hamsun Norway Norwegian Novel 1976 Saul Bellow USA (Canada) English Novel 1919 Carl Spitteler Switzerland German Poetry 1975 Eugenio Montale Italy Italian Poetry 1918 (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) 1974 Eyvind Johnson Sweden Swedish Novel 1917 Henrik Pontoppidan Denmark Danish Novel 1974 Harry Martinson Sweden Swedish Novel 1917 Karl Gjellerup Denmark Danish Poetry 1973 Patrick White Australia (UK) English Novel 1916 Verner von Heidenstam Sweden Swedish Poetry 1972 Heinrich Böll Germany (W.) German Novel 1915 Romain Rolland France French Novel 1971 Pablo Neruda Chile Spanish Poetry 1914 (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) (no prize) 1970 Alexandr Solzhenitsyn USSR Russian Novel 1913 Rabindranath Tagore India (British) Bengali/English Poetry 1969 Samuel Beckett Ireland/France English/French Drama, Novel 1912 Gerhart Hauptmann Germany German Drama 1968 Yasunari Kawabata Japan Japanese Novel 1911 Maurice Maeterlinck Belgium French Drama 1967 Miguel Angel Asturias Guatemala Spanish Novel 1910 Paul Heyse Germany German Poetry, Novella 1966 Nelly Sachs Sweden (Germany) German Poetry 1909 Selma Lagerlöf Sweden Swedish Novel 1966 Shmuel Agnon Israel (Austria) Hebrew Novel 1908 Rudolf Eucken Germany German Philosophy 1965 Mikhail Sholokhov USSR Russian Novel 1907 Rudyard Kipling India (British) English Novel, Story, Poetry 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (refused) France French Philosophy, Drama 1906 Giosuè Carducci Italy Italian Poetry 1963 Giorgos Seferis Greece Greek Poetry 1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz Poland (Russian Poland) Polish Novel 1962 John Steinbeck USA English Novel 1904 Frédéric Mistral France (Provence) Provençal Poetry 1961 Ivo Andric Yugoslavia (Bosnia) Serbo-Croatian Novel 1904 José Echegaray Spain Spanish Drama 1960 Saint-John Perse France (Antilles) French Poetry 1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Norway Norwegian Poetry 1959 Salvatore !uasimodo Italy Italian Poetry 1902 "eodor Mommsen Germany German History 1958 Boris Pasternak (refused) USSR Russian Novel 1901 Sully Prudhomme France French Poetry 1957 Albert Camus France (Algeria) French Novel