Bob Dylan performing at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, March 23, 1975. (Alvan Meyerowitz/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
(JTA) — American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan has been awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Dylan, 75, was recognized for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” the Swedish Academy, which is responsible for choosing the Nobel laureates in literature, announced Thursday.
Born Robert Allen Zimmerman and raised Jewish in Minnesota, Dylan wrote some of the most influential and well-known songs of the 1960s. His hits include “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Times They Are a-Changin’.”
Dylan is the first American to receive the prize in more than 20 years; novelist Toni Morrison won in 1993. He will receive the $927,740 prize in Stockholm on Dec. 10, which is Alfred Nobel’s birthday.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
