STOCKHOLM (AP) — Nobel Week is underway in Stockholm and Oslo, with laureates holding news conferences and lectures before receiving the prestigious prize.
Hungarian László Krasznahorkai won the literary prize for his surreal and anarchist novels that combine a bleak worldview with acerbic humour. He is expected to give a speech in Stockholm on Sunday, one of his rare public appearances.
When Nobel judges announced the award in October, they described the 71-year-old as “a great epic writer” whose works are “characterized by absurdism and grotesque excess.”
“Krazna Hokai’s work can be seen as part of a Central European tradition,” the Nobel Prize organization said. “Important features are pessimism and apocalypse, but also humor and unpredictability.”
Last year’s winner was South Korean writer Han Kang. The 2023 winner is Norwegian author Jon Fosse, whose works include a seven-volume one-sentence epic.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan Peace Prize winner and opposition leader Maria Collina Machado will travel to Oslo this week to receive the award in person, Kristian Hapviken, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, said on Saturday.
The 58-year-old, who won the fight for a democratic transition in the South American country, has been in hiding since January and has not been seen in public.
Harpviken told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that Machado was expected to receive the award in person on Wednesday.
“I spoke to the Peace Prize winner last night and she will be coming to Oslo,” Hapviken said, according to NRK.
The Nobel Prize ceremony is held on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel in 1896. The Peace Prize Ceremony was held in Oslo and other ceremonies were held in Stockholm.
