Bob Dylan lands Nobel Prize for literature

American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has been handed the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

The 75-year-old now becomes the 108th winner of the most prestigious literature prize in the world and according to the Swedish Academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, Dylan, “is a great poet in the English-speaking tradition.” She drew parallels between his work and that of ancient Greek poets.

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“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. She also described him as “a wonderful sampler, a very original sampler.”

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