Countries of Nobel Prize-Winning Authors Quiz

Answer: United States

Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993, U.S. author Morrison received the honour for "novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, [which] gives life to an essential aspect of American reality". Known for works such as "Beloved", "The Bluest Eye", and "Sula", Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning works have resulted in her being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, due in part to her complex novels and their discussions of feminism, the black experience, and haunting familial relationships.

She is among the best-selling of the Nobel Laureates of Literature.

Answer: South Africa

Coetzee, awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003, has been awarded countless prizes over his half-century of published works ranging from novels to letters to criticisms and autobiographical pieces. The Nobel Committee gave the prize to him for, "in innumerable guises, portraying the surprising involvement of the outsider". Coetzee won two Booker Prizes for some of his most popular fiction-- "Life & Times of Michael K" and "Disgrace", both of which were set in his hometown of Cape Town.

Answer: Switzerland

Hesse, German-born, but Swiss by nationality, was perhaps most well-known for "Steppenwolf" and "Siddhartha", both existential novels with interesting spiritual approaches. He ended up writing twenty works in his lifetime spanning nearly fifty years of authoring.

He passed away in 1962. As per the Nobel Prize Committee, Hesse was given the prize "for his inspired writings, which while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style."

Answer: United States

One of the few Nobel Laureates of literature not to release novels, Bob Dylan was added to the list in 2016 to the surprise of many "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition". Dylan had, of course, been writing American music since the end of the 1950s, receiving countless Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom after becoming one of the best-selling and most celebrated musicians of the modern era.

He was the first musician to receive the Nobel Prize in this field.

Answer: France

The second author to refuse the prize outright (the first being Boris Pasternak), Jean-Paul Sartre was named as the winner in 1964 "for his work, which rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age." Most of his highly-philosophical works became forerunners for philosophical debate in the twentieth century, and he wrote everything from novels to essays to short stories to stage plays and screenplays.

He passed away in 1980 in his hometown-- Paris, France.

Answer: Portugal

One of the most celebrated authors going into the twenty-first century, José Saramago's bibliography is extensive, often following the lives of the Portuguese or unknown lands filling in for the reader's interpretation. Most of his books were translated into English and other languages, leading to international fame for works like "Blindness", "Seeing", and "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ".

He was awarded the prize in 1998 because "with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality." He died in 2010 of leukemia.

Answer: The United Kingdom

Writer of the "Children of Violence" and "Canopus in Argos: Archives" series as well as countless standalone novels and short stories, Doris Lessing became the tenth British author to receive the honours (in 2007). Although born in Iran, Lessing lived in London for most of her life, writing her way to numerous prestigious awards in the UK book world.

The Nobel Prize Committee referred to her as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".

She passed away in 2013.

Answer: Canada

Chosen because she proved to be a "master of the contemporary short story", Alice Munro's selection in 2013 was very much justified by her extensive body of work in the medium. Munro's works often focused on fictional and sometimes autobiographical women going through the events of their lives; she would often spend time rewriting and releasing stories over the years, imagining new possibilities for the same characters.

She's won five Canadian Governor General Awards. Amongst her works, one would be best to read "Lives of Girls and Women", "Runaway", and "Dear Life".

Answer: The United Kingdom

Best known for his debut work, "Lord of the Flies", Cornwall native William Golding became one of the most popular British authors of the twentieth century, even being knighted by the Queen in 1988. He passed away only four years later. He was awarded the prize in 1983 "for his novels, which with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today".

The universality is so present that it's not unreasonable for high school students around the world to read his works in a mandatory fashion as part of literature classes.

Answer: Chile

Born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, Pablo Neruda took on a pen name early, writing poetry as early as age ten and flourishing as one of the biggest names in South American literature ever seen. At one point he was even considered a frontrunner to be President of Chile. Neruda was given the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 "for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams".

He also received the International Peace Prize in its inaugural year (1950).