IVO ANDRIĆ WINS THE NOBEL PRIZE

BIJELJINA, OCTOBER 25 /SRNA/ - The Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Serbian writer Ivo Andrić on October 26, 1961.

It was a major honor for a writer who, through his novels The Bridge on the Drina, Bosnian Chronicle, and The Damned Yard, introduced the world to people and personal destinies from the Balkans that had previously been less familiar to international readers.

The Nobel Committee cited “the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country” as the reason for the award.

At a grand ceremony in Stockholm, in the presence of diplomatic representatives and Swedish government officials, Andrić was presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature on December 10, 1961.

Andrić expressed his gratitude for the honor in his speech, On the Story and Storytelling.

Anders Österling, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, introduced the Nobel laureate on behalf of the Nobel Committee with the following words:

"Andrić has a great tenderness for people, but he does not shy away from horrors or violence, which, in his eyes, confirms the reality of evil. He is a writer who is a master of a highly personal and original range of themes. Andrić opens a previously unknown page in world history and speaks to us from the depths of the suffering soul of the South Slavic people."

Andrić donated the one million dollars he received with the Nobel Prize to the development of libraries in BiH.

Ivo Andrić is the first and, to date, the only Nobel Prize laureate from this part of the world.