Tomas Transtromer, a Swedish poet who has written more than 15 collections of poetry, was named the winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature today. His poems have translated into English and 60 other languages.

Julie Bosman from the New York Times wrote a profile on Transtromer saying, “Critics have praised Mr. Transtromer’s poems for their accessibility, even in translation; his descriptions of the long Swedish winters, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature.”

Read the full story here.

The University of Nebraska Press congratulates Transtromer, even though his win breaks our streak — for the past three years, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to an author published by the University of Nebraska Press. J.M.G. Le Clézio, who won the 2009 Prize, is the author of UNP titles Onitsha, The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts, and Mondo and Other Stories.  2010 winner Herta Müller is the author of Nadirs, and Mario Vargas Llosa, who won the prize last year, contributed to our soccer anthology, The Global Game.
 
In 2009, C. Max Magee of The Millions said that small presses are “…shepherding the work of these writers into print and keeping it available until such time as the rest of us are able to take notice.”