Bob Dylan Wins 2016 Nobel Prize In Literature

Legendary songwriter, musician and poet Bob Dylan has finally won the elusive Nobel Prize In Literature, it has been announced.

Dylan's Nobel, bestowed upon the veteran troubadour "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition", was revealed at a press conference at the Swedish Academy, in Stockholm, broadcast internationally via video livestream on Facebook, YouTube and the Nobel Prize website tonight (AEST).

Some of those in attendance were audibly surprised by the announcement, a fact reflected in an interview with Professor Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, after the fact. During the Q&A, Danius' interviewer questioned her about whether Dylan, as someone more popularly thought of as a songwriter, really deserved the prize (a key point of contention, oh, every time he's been mentioned as a worthy candidate in the past) — to which she replied, "Of course he does; he just got it."

"He is a great poet; he is a great poet in the English-speaking tradition, and he is a wonderful sampler, a very original sampler," Danius explained. "He embodies the tradition and, for … 54 years now, he's been at it, reinventing himself, constantly reinventing himself, creating a new identity."

The interviewer was persistent in his apparent skepticism, suggesting the judging panel had "widened the horizon" to allow for Dylan's inclusion as a Nobel Laureate.

"It may look that way, but really we haven't," she said. "In a way, if you look back, far back, 2500 years or so, you discover Homer and Sappho, and they wrote poetic texts that were meant to be listened to, they were meant to be performed, often together with instruments, and it's the same way with Bob Dylan. But we're still reading Homer and Sappho, and we enjoy it, and the same thing with Bob Dylan — he can be read, and should be read, and is a great poet in the English tradition, in the grand English poetic tradition."

If you're in the 'Doubt' camp, you could always cast your eye over the extensive bio-bibliography the Nobel Prize academy provided in making its announcement, which demonstrates the man's frankly ridiculous cultural reach and impact by including references to works both by and about Dylan, including 30 written works in English, nearly 70 albums, 11 films, and 29 other works in a variety of languages including Spanish, German, Swedish and French. 

Danius was even able to provide an example of his appropriateness off the top of her head: "I think if you want to start listening, or reading, you may start with Blonde On Blonde, the album from 1966".

"You've got many classics, and it's an extraordinary example of his brilliant way of rhyming and putting together refrains, and his pictorial thinking," she said.