French author Annie Ernaux awarded Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize organisers said they hadn’t been able to reach French author to tell her the good news yet
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Annie Ernaux has been named as the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature.
The French author was announced as the winner at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Thursday (6 October).
Ernaux, 82, was awarded the prize “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”.
However, the Swedish Academy said that they had not been able to reach Ernaux by phone to tell her the good news yet.
On Twitter, they wrote: “The 2022 #NobelPrize laureate in literature Annie Ernaux believes in the liberating force of writing. Her work is uncompromising and written in plain language, scraped clean.”
Born in Normandy in 1940, Ernaux trained as a school teacher and taught throughout the 1970s before published her first book in 1974.
Her switch from fiction to autobiographical writing came very early in her career, and she penned her first autobiographical novel Les Armoires vides aged 34.
She has continued to write about her own life and subjects such as her parents, her abortion, her affair and breast cancer throughout her works.
In 1984, Ernaux won the Renaudot Prize for La Place, in which she grappled with her relationship with her father.
In 2008, she penned Les Années, considered by many to be her magnum opus. In the book, Ernaux wrote in the third person for the first time, with the award winning multiple prizes.
She was nominated for the International Booker Prize in 2019.
Ernaux will be presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature, consisting of a gold medal, diploma and 10m SEK (£1m) cash prize, on 10 December.
Her publisher Fitzcarraldo tweeted that they were “over the moon” with Ernaux’s win.
Last year’s prize was awarded to Tanzanian-born British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, who received the award for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.
He was the first Black writer to win the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments