The Nobel Committee has ​added weight to the claim that song lyrics ​are the new poetry. Musician Bob Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature ‘for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,’ said Professor Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.
This is the first time a songwriter had been awarded the prize. But this is not the first time Dylan has been nominated for an international literary award. In 2012 he was also shortlisted for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
