| 1984 | Jaroslav Seifert | (Born in ஆத்திரியா-அங்கேரி) | Czech | "for his poetry, which endowed with freshness, and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man" | poetry |  |
| 1985 | கிளாட் சிமோன் | (Born in French Madagascar) | French | "who in his novel combines the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition" | novel |  |
| 1986 | வோலே சொயிங்கா | English | "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence" | drama, novel, poetry |  |  |
| 1987 | Joseph Brodsky | (Born in the சோவியத் ஒன்றியம்) | English and Russian | "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity" | poetry, essay |  |
| 1988 | நகிப் மஹ்ஃபூஸ் | Arabic | "who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind" | novel |  |  |
| 1989 | Camilo José Cela | Spanish | "for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability" | novel, short story |  |  |
| 1990 | ஒக்டாவியோ பாஸ் | Spanish | "for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity" | poetry, essay |  |  |
| 1991 | நாடின் கார்டிமர் | English | "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity" | novel, short story, essay |  |  |
| 1992 | டெரெக் வால்காட் | English | "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment" | poetry, drama |  |  |
| 1993 | டோனி மாரிசன் | English | "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality" | novel |  |  |
| 1994 | Kenzaburō Ōe | Japanese | "who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today" | novel, short story |  |  |
| 1995 | Seamus Heaney | (Born in the ஐக்கிய இராச்சியம்) | English | "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past" | poetry |  |
| 1996 | விஸ்லவா சிம்போர்ஸ்கா | Polish | "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality" | poetry |  |  |
| 1997 | Dario Fo | Italian | "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden" | drama |  |  |
| 1998 | ஜோசே சரமாகூ | Portuguese | "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality" | novel, drama, poetry |  |  |
| 1999 | கூன்டர் கிராசு | German | "whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history" | novel, drama, poetry |  |  |
| 2000 | Gao Xingjian | (since 1998)
(1940–1998) | Chinese | "for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama" | novel, drama, literary criticism |  |
| 2001 | வி. சூ. நைப்பால் | (Born in டிரினிடாட் மற்றும் டொபாகோ) | English | "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories" | novel, essay |  |
| 2002 | Imre Kertész | Hungarian | "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history" | novel |  |  |
| 2003 | ஜே. எம். கோட்ஸி | (Born in South Africa) | English | "who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider" | novel, essay, translation |  |
| 2004 | எல்ஃபிரெட் எலினெக் | German | "for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power" | novel, drama |  |  |
| 2005 | ஹரோல்ட் பிண்டர் | English | "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms" | drama, screenplay |  |  |
| 2006 | ஓரான் பாமுக் | Turkish | "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" | novel, screenplay, essay |  |  |
| 2007 | டோரிஸ் லெசிங் | (Born in Iran) | English | "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny" | novel, drama, poetry, short story, memoirs |  |
| 2008 | ஜெ. எம். ஜி. லெ கிளேசியோ | French | "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization" | novel, short story, essay, translation |  |  |
| 2009 | எர்ட்டா முல்லர் | (Born in Romania) | German | "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed" | novel, poetry |  |
| 2010 | மாரியோ பார்க்காசு யோசா | Spanish | "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat" | novel, short story, essay, drama, memoirs |  |  |
| 2011 | தோமசு திரான்சிட்ரோமர் | Swedish | "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality" | poetry, translation |  |  |
| 2012 | மோ யான் | Chinese | "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary" | novel, short story |  |  |
| 2013 | ஆலிசு மன்ரோ | English | "master of the contemporary short story" | short story |  |  |
| 2014 | பத்திரிக்கு மொதியானோ | French | "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation" | novel |  |  |
| 2015 | சிவெத்லானா அலெக்சியேவிச் | (Born in Ukrainian SSR) | Russian | "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time" | history, essay |  |
| 2016 | பாப் டிலான் | English | "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition" | poetry, songwriting |  |  |
| 2017 | கசுவோ இசுகுரோ | (born in யப்பான்) | English | "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world" | novel |  |
| 2018 | ஓல்கா தோக்கர்சுக்கு | போலந்து | போலிய மொழி | "தீவிரப்பற்றுடன் கூடிய கற்பனை வளங்கொண்ட எழுத்துநடையுடன் புதிய முயற்சிகளால் தளைகளைக் கடந்தமைக்காக" | புதினம், சிறுகதை, கவிதை, கட்டுரை, திரைக்கதை |  |
| 2019 | பீட்டர் ஆண்ட்கே | ஆத்திரியா | செருமானிய மொழி | "மொழியியல் கூர்மதியுடன் மனித நுகர்வுணர்வின் எல்லையையும் தனித்துவத்தையும் ஆராய்ந்ந்தற்காக" | புதினம், சிறுகதை, நாடகம், கட்டுரை, மொழிபெயர்ப்பு, திரைக்கதை |  |
| 2020 | இலூயிசு கிளிக்கு | அமெரிக்கா | ஆங்கிலம் | "தனிமனித இருப்பை ஆடம்பரமில்லாத அழகுணர்வுடன் உலகளாவிய ஒன்றாக மாற்றும் அவரது தெளிவான கவித்துவக் குரலுக்காக" | கவிதை, கட்டுரை |  |
| 2021 | அப்துல்ரசாக் குர்னா | தான்சானியா, ஐக்கியப் பேரரசு | ஆங்கிலம் | "குடியேற்றவாதத்தின் விளைவுகள் குறித்தும் புகலடைந்தோரின் கதி குறித்ததுமான அவரது சமரசமற்ற குரலுக்காக" | புதினம், சிறுகதை, கட்டுரை |  |
| 2022 | அன்னி எர்னோ | பிரான்சு | பிரெஞ்சு | "தனிமனித நினைவகத்தின் வேர்களையும் சமூகத் தளைகளையும் மனவுறுதியுடனும் கூர்மையுடனும் வெளிப்படுத்தியமைக்காக" | சுயசரிதை, புதினம் | } |