The Norwegian playwright, poet, and novelist Jon Fosse was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. Announcing the award, the Swedish Academy said Fosse was given the honor in recognition of “his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable. “I am overwhelmed, and somewhat frightened,” the 64-year-old writer said in a statement. “I see this as an award to the literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other considerations.” Fosse, who has written more than 40 plays, as well as novels, short stories, and essays, will receive around $1 million in addition to the prize. He writes in “new Norwegian,” the much less commonly used of two official versions of the Norwegian language.