List of Nobel laureates in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature (Swedish: Nobelpriset i litteratur) is awarded annually by the Swedish Academy to authors for outstanding contributions in the field of literature. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, which are awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine. As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by a committee that consists of five members elected by the Swedish Academy. The first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1901 to Sully Prudhomme of France. Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a monetary award prize that has varied throughout the years. In 1901, Prudhomme received 150,782 SEK, which is equivalent to 7,731,004 SEK in December 2007. In 2008, the prize was awarded to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio of France, who was awarded the prize amount of 10,000,000 SEK. The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

As of 2010, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to 107 laureates. When he received the award in 1958, Russian-born Boris Pasternak was forced to decline it under pressure from the government of the Soviet Union. In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre refused to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature, as he had consistently refused all official honors in the past. Twelve women have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, more than any other Nobel Prize with the exception of the Nobel Peace Prize. Among all the years the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded, there have been only four instances in which the award was given to two individuals (1904, 1917, 1966, 1974). There have been seven years in which the Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded (1914, 1918, 1935, 1940–1943).