2006 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Orhan Pamuk. The prize was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on 12 October 2006.

The citation

The citation reads: "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures".

The laureate

Orhan Pamuk was born in 1952 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Why it matters

The Turkish novelist, whose books include My Name Is Red and Snow, is the first writer from Turkey to receive the prize. Istanbul, his native city, is at the heart of much of his work.

The prize

The prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.