Who is Nobel Literature 2021 prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah?

TANZANIAN novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, 73, is awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature. Gurnah, the first black African writer in 35 years to win the prestigious award, is the author of 10 novels as well as numerous short stories. Writer Abdulrazak Gurnah wins 2021 Nobel Prize for literature Who is Abdulrazak Gurnah? Gurnah was born in Zanzibar in 1948 and fled the small island at 18 to escape persecution of Arab citizens during the Zanzibar Revolution. He arrived in Britain as a student and refugee in the 1960s. During the 1960s, Britain’s economy boomed causing an influx of migrants. Britain was torn between offering asylum and xenophobia. The academic and author Gurnah was honored the Nobel prize in literature for his ‘uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents’. read more On news PUTIN'S ENEMY NO.1 Putin murdered my wife and tortured me, says ex Brit schoolboy CHEW'VE BEEN BAD Cheeky pooches pose for snaps after unleashing doggy destruction at home GLOBAL THREAT China vows to ‘fight to the death’ against Taiwan’s allies after WW3 warning SQUAT HORROR Girl, 14, 'permanently disabled' after being made to do 150 SQUATS by teacher NEVER FREE Tragic tale of killer whale Keiko who starred in Free Willy before dying alone APE HELL How baby Donald became ‘more ape than man’ in experiment before killing himself What is Abdulrazak Gurnah‘s academic work? Gurnah earned his phd from the University of Kent. He was also an English professor and the director of graduate studies there before he retired. Gurnah’s academic focus is in postcolonial writing and colonial discourse, especially as they relate to Africa, the Caribbean and India. His novel Paradise was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1994. Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee, said of Gurnah’s work from his debut Memory of Departure, about the agony and frustration of the failed uprisings in his land, to his most recent, Afterlives – “recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world”. How does Gurnah feel about being honored the prestigious award? The Nobel Committee for Literature praised Gurnah for his ‘dedication to truth’. The Nobel prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy, is worth 10 million Swedish crowns, which is $1.14milion. “It’s just great. It’s just a big prize, and such a huge list of wonderful writers. I am still taking it in,” Gurnah said to the academy. “It was such a complete surprise that I really had to wait until I heard it announced before I could believe it.” We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The US Sun team? Email us at exclusive@the-sun.com or call 212 416 4552. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunUS