The Swedish Academy announcement yesterday featured French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio as the 2008 Nobel Prize winner in Literature for a lifetime of successful works. Le Clézio is one of 105 persons since 1901 to have received this award. 

As one of France’s best-known contemporary writers, he has published nearly 30 novels, essays and short stories.  Le Clézio is the author of Onitsha (Nebraska, 1997) and The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts (Nebraska, 2003), published by University of Nebraska Press.

“Before there was multiculturalism, there was the work of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Le Clézio spins words which span the entire globe…with the sweet melancholy and sensuality which have become his trademark.” –Washington Post Book World

Nice-born Le Clézio has won numerous prizes, including the Prix Renaudot for his first novel Le Proces-Verbal at the age of 23. Over the last three decades his works have been translated in many languages including Swedish, German, and English.

The University of Nebraska Press has a long standing dedication to making available the best literature from around the world. With nearly 200 translated titles currently in print from 5 different languages, UNP is one of the largest, most active American publishers of translated works.

The University of Nebraska Press will be exhibiting Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio’s titles at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair October 15-19, 2008 in Frankfurt, Germany, by Combined Academic Publishers, Ltd. Please visit booth 8.0 B935 to view 2008 Laureate Le Clézio’s titles.