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World Book Day 2024 – Enjoy some readings

Nobel Prize in Literature 2020

“The great thing is not having a mind …”

Louise Glück reads her poem ‘The Red Poppy’ from her book The Wild Iris. Glück was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”

Read more poems by Louise Glück
‘The Red Poppy’ from THE WILD IRIS by Louise Glück
Copyright © 1992, Louise Glück. All rights reserved.
Nobel Prize in Literature 1991

“Once upon our time, there was an earthquake …”

Nadine Gordimer reads her short story ‘Loot’ from Loot and Other Stories.
Nobel Prize in Literature 2006

“I’ve never left Istanbul – never left the houses, streets and neighbourhoods of my childhood”

Orhan Pamuk reads from his novel Istanbul: Memories of a City.
Nobel Prize in Literature 2010

“I first became acquainted with the Amazon jungle halfway through 1958 …”

Mario Vargas Llosa reads an excerpt from ‘The Storyteller’ (‘El Hablador’).

Featured literature laureates

Nobel Prize in Literature 2018

"The characters are coming from outside to my story"

Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the literature prize “for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.” In this interview she talks about her childhood, the road to becoming a Nobel Prize-awarded author, her love of fairytales and the process of writing.
Olga Tokarczuk

Photo: A. Mahmoud.

Nobel Prize in Literature 2008

"I embarked on a discovery of the world"

“For want of any children’s books, I read my grandmother’s dictionaries. They were like a marvellous gateway, through which I embarked on a discovery of the world, to wander and daydream as I looked at the illustrated plates, and the maps, and the lists of unfamiliar words.”
In his Nobel Lecture, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio recalled his childhood books.
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

Photo: C. Hélie Gallimard COUL

Encyclopaedias, classics or comics?

What did the Nobel Prize laureates read when they were young? In their autobiographies and lectures, the laureates reveal their reading habits: how they got started, who spurred them to read on, and where they spent their time losing themselves between the pages of a book. Find out and compare with your own experience, or simply get inspired!
Books

© Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud

Nobel Prize in Literature

Six master storytellers

Here six Nobel Prize laureates reflect on the power of books – celebrating the written world of human experience and imagination.

Book excerpts

Nobel Prize in Literature

Enjoy some reading

On nobelprize.org, you can find excerpts from many of the literature laureates’ literary works such as Annie Ernaux’ books Happening and Shame, Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude and Wisława Szymborska’s poem ‘The Three Oddest Words’.


Enjoy some excerpts from books or poems written by literature laureates. Discover all the excerpts here.

Books

© Nobel Media. Photo: A. Mahmoud

Nobel Prize laureates share their stories

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019

"This stimulated my curiosity"

“My path to chemistry began in the fourth grade of elementary school, when my teacher recommended that I read The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday. The book made it easy to understand why a candle burns, what happens when it burns, and why it has a wick. This stimulated my curiosity, and I became fascinated with chemistry.”

In his Nobel Prize biography, 2019 chemistry laureate Akira Yoshino tells us about the book that changed his life. Yoshino received the chemistry prize “for the development of lithium-ion batteries.”
Akira Yoshino at Kawasaki laboratory in Japan.

Akira Yoshino at Kawasaki laboratory in Japan.

Photo: Asahi Kasei

Who wrote what?

Nobel Prizes and laureates

All Nobel Prizes in Literature

See the full list of prizes and laureates

News

Nobel Prizes 2023

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023

Vaccine development

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023 was awarded jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.”
A blue background with COVID-19 virus and a yellow strand of modified mRNA. Also shown is the chemical structure of pseudouridine, an RNA base that was important in the prize-awarded discovery. The graphic represents the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Katalin Karinkó and Drew Weissman who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

© The Nobel Committe for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén

Watch Nobel Minds

2023 Nobel Prize laureates in discussion

Watch the laureates in a discussion about their discoveries and achievements, and how these might find a practical application. Nobel Minds is hosted by the BBC’s Zeinab Badawi.
Nobel Minds 2023

Nobel Minds 2023.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin.

2023 Nobel Prizes

Crash course – 2023 Nobel Prizes

How much do you know about the discoveries awarded the 2023 Nobel Prizes? Take our one-minute crash course on each of the prizes and find out how each have changed our world.
Students with illustrations behind.

Nobel Prize lessons

Easy to use lessons about the 2023 Nobel Prizes

From nanotechnology to the development of effective mRNA vaccines. Now you can bring the discoveries and achievements made by the 2023 Nobel Prize laureates into the classroom.

The lessons are free and easy to use. They include a slideshow, manuscript and student worksheet.
Illustration of all 2023 Nobel Prizes

© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, © The Nobel Committe for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén, Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

Alfred Nobel – Established the Nobel Prizes

Scientist and inventor

Chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel left 31 million SEK (today about 342 million dollars) to fund the Nobel Prizes.

A bust of Alfred Nobel, surrounded by a beautiful wall of flowers

Alfred Nobel's early years

When Alfred was five years old his father Immanuel, an inventor and builder, moved to St. Petersburg. Alfred joined him a few years later.

Alfred Nobel 1853

Inventing dynamite

Based on Alfred’s work and patents a whole new industry developed. Within ten years, 16 explosives producing factories had been founded in 14 countries.

Nobels Dynamite 10 Nov 1906

A controversial will

In his will of 27 November 1895, signed in Paris, Alfred Nobel specified that the bulk of his fortune should be used for prizes.

Alfred Nobel Will

Play a game!

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1930

The Blood Typing Game

How much do you know about blood types? Did you know that human blood groups were discovered by Nobel Prize laureate Karl Landsteiner in 1901?

Learn more about the way to find out about the human blood groups, blood typing and the importance of safe blood transfusions. See if you can save the lives of the patients in the game!
Blood typing game
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1904

Pavlov's Dog

Is it possible to train a dog to drool on command? Learn about conditioned reflexes in this interactive game!

With this animated game, teachers are able to illustrate classical conditioning in the classroom. The object of the game is to train Pavlov’s dog to respond to a signal that it will associate with being fed.

In 1904, Ivan Pavlov was awarded with Nobel Prize for his pioneering studies of how the digestive system works.
Pavlov's Dog Game

Peace Builders

Step into the shoes of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and learn about the legacy of Alfred Nobel in this immersive learning experience from the Nobel Peace Center. All Minecraft players can now journey alongside Desmond Tutu, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Jody Williams and Carl von Ossietzky to bring their vision of a more democratic, peaceful world to life.
Minecraft peacebuilders

What are you looking for? Search the website.

Nobel destinations

Stockholm, Sweden

Nobel Prize Museum

The Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, illustrates a century of creativity, where visitors can follow the changes of the 20th century through the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Prize laureates.
The Nobel Prize: Ideas Changing the World (3)

The museum showcases the discoveries and creativity of the Nobel Prize laureates.

Photo: Åke Eson Lindman

Oslo, Norway

Nobel Peace Center

Located in the heart of Oslo, Norway, the Nobel Peace Center is a place where you can experience and learn about the various Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
NPC Nye Nobels Hage 10

The story of each peace laureate is told at the museum.

Photo: Johannes Granseth/Nobel Peace Center

In memoriam

Herbert Kroemer 1928‒2024

Physicist Herbert Kroemer passed away on 8 March 2024, age 95. He was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics.

Biography
Herbert Kroemer

Daniel Kahneman passes away at 90

Daniel Kahneman passed away on 27 March, age 90. He was awarded the 2002 economic sciences prize for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty.

Biography
Daniel Kahneman

Neuroscientist Roger Guillemin dies

Roger Guillemin passade away on 21 February, age 100. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977 for discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain.

Biography
Roger Guillemin