Austrian novelist wins Nobel Prize for literature

Elfriede Jelinek won the prize for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays".

Austrian novelist and poet Elfriede Jelinek, 57, won the Nobel Prize in literature, the Swedish Academy said on Thursday, citing her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's cliches and their subjugating power."

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The decision to award the prize to a woman, and a poet, was the first since 1996, when Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska won. Since the prize was first handed out in 1901, only nine women have won it.

Austrian novelist and poet Elfriede Jelinek becomes the tenth woman Nobel literature laureate.

The 18 lifetime members of the 218-year-old Swedish Academy, of whom only four are women, made the annual selection in deep secrecy last week.

For any writer, there could hardly be any greater honor than winning the Nobel Prize. But for an author whose work isn't widely translated, it opens doors to new markets and sales. The prize also brings a financial security net, too _ a check of more than 10 million kronor