French author Annie Ernaux wins Nobel Literature Prize

The 'Exceptional And Unique Writer' Chronicles Her Life, Including An Abortion, Love & Infidelity

The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on Thursday to Annie Ernaux, the French novelist whose intensely personal books have spoken to generations of women by highlighting incidents from her own life, including a back-street abortion in the 1960s and a passionate extramarital affair.

Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which decides the prize, announced the decision at a news conference in Stockholm, lauding the "courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements, and collective restraints of personal memory."

Ernaux, 82, becomes only the 17th female writer to have won the prize since it was formed in 1901. She is the second woman to be given the prize in three years after Louise Glück, the American poet, who was awarded the 2020 prize. The first French woman to win the prize, Ernaux said winning was "a responsibility".