2019 Nobel Prize in Literature
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Austrian writer Peter Handke "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience." The prize was announced by the Swedish Academy on 10 October 2019. Laureate. Peter Handke is regarded as one of the most influential writers in Europe after the Second World War. He is the author of novels, essays, note books, dramatic works and screenplays. Reactions. The choice of Peter Handke for the prize in 2019 caused much controversy and was criticised because of  Handke's vocal support of Serbia during the 1990s Yugoslav wars. Albania's foreign minister Gent Cakaj called it a "shameful" award and Kosovo's former president Hashim Thaçi (currently charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes) said that "The decision of Nobel Prize brought immense pain to countless victims", and it was also criticised by several other politicians and survivors of the war. In a statement, PEN America wrote that the organisation was "dumbfounded by the selection of a writer who has used his public voice to undercut historical truth". The Swedish Academy defended their decision to award  Handke and wrote that "the Swedish Academy has obviously not intended to reward a war criminal and denier of war crimes or genocide" and that the Academy "has found nothing in what he has written that involves attacks on civil society or respect for the equal value of all people".