Swede wins Nobel Literature Prize

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6 October 2011 Last updated at 13:06 GMT Transtroemer is Scandinavia's best-known living poet Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer has been awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Royal Swedish Academy named him the recipient "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality".

The 80-year-old is the 108th recipient of the prestigious prize, given last year to Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa.

Presented by the Nobel Foundation, the award - only given to living writers - is worth 10 million kronor (£944,246).

A trained psychologist, Transtroemer suffered a stroke in 1990 that affected his ability to talk.

'Mystical'

His poems - described by Publishers Weekly as "mystical, versatile and sad" - have been translated into more than 50 languages.

English translations were largely handled by American poet Robert Bly, a personal friend, and Scottish poet Robin Fulton.

Fulton, said Transtroemer would be remembered for "his very sharp imagery that translates readily, telling metaphors and a sense of surprise".

"You don't feel quite the same after you've read it as you did before," he added.

Fulton first began working with Transtroemer in the early 1970s, and told the BBC: "Some of the Swedish I've learnt was learnt in the process of translating Tomas.

"You have to plunge in somewhere. When you're in the mood it's good until someone points out the mistakes you've made."

Tipped as a potential Nobel prize winner for many years, Transtroemer is the eighth European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in the last 10 years.

He is the first Swede to receive the prize since authors Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson shared it in 1974.

Born in April 1931 in Stockholm, Transtroemer graduated in psychology in 1956 and later worked in an institution for juvenile offenders.

His first collection of poetry, Seventeen Poems, was published when he was 23.

In 1966 he received the Bellman prize, one of many accolades he has won over his long career.

In 2003 one of his poems was read at the memorial service of Anna Lindh, the murdered Swedish foreign minister.

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A Nobel Prize for Bob Dylan? Some Would Bet On It

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Bob Dylan as a Nobel Prize winner likely isn't a common conversation in mainstream America.

But there is no questioning the singer's impact on pop culture, from the 1960s until now. And that is what has given the Nobel Prize for Literature an interesting option in the discussions leading up to the Thursday announcement of the winner.

(LIST: Top 10 Persecuted Artists)

The Guardian reports a sudden surge on betting for Dylan— and this isn't his first nomination, mind you. The Ladbrokes gambling company has him as the fourth favorite to win the award, with his chances now improving to 10/1. Dylan's lifetime of lyrical work has already started to gain international attention — just look at his Pulitzer Prize Special Citation and Award from 2008 and the nomination this summer for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

While still trailing Syrian poet Adonis, Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer and Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami as favorites for the Nobel, just being in the same conversation as them gives pop culture purists hope that words that resonate with the common man can compete with those not as well known, even in the academic world. How many of you have a working knowledge of the literary writing of the three other names in this paragraph, but could happily recite some Dylan lyrics?

LIST: Bob Dylan's Best and Worst Songs of All Time

Tim Newcomb is a contributor for TIME. Find him on Twitter at @tdnewcomb. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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"(The Rapture will) be finished out on Oct. 21, that's coming very shortly. That looks like it will be ... the final end of everything."

— HAROLD CAMPING, giving an update on when the Rapture, an event he says started on May 21, will finish (via Christian Post)

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Kenya Nobel laureate Maathai dies

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26 September 2011 Last updated at 05:20 GMT The BBC's Will Ross said Ms Maathai was seen as a source of inspiration

Kenya's Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai has died in Nairobi while undergoing cancer treatment. She was 71.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for promoting conservation, women's rights and transparent government - the first African woman to get the award.

She was elected as an MP in 2002 and served as a minister in the Kenyan government for a time.

Ms Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted 20-30 million trees in Africa.

'Role model and heroine'

"It is with great sadness that the family of Professor Wangari Maathai announces her passing away on 25 September, 2011, at the Nairobi Hospital, after a prolonged and bravely borne struggle with cancer," the Green Belt Movement said in a statement.

"Her loved ones were with her at the time.

"Professor Maathai's departure is untimely and a very great loss to all who knew her - as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and heroine; or who admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier, and better place."

The organisation did not provide further details.

Ms Maathai, who was a professor of veterinary anatomy, rose to international fame for campaigns against government-backed forest clearances in Kenya in the late 1980s-90s.

Under the former government of President Daniel Arap Moi, she was arrested several times, and vilified.

In 2008, Ms Maathai was tear-gassed during a protest against the Kenyan president's plan to increase the number of ministers in the cabinet.

In her speech accepting the Nobel prize, Ms Maathai said she hoped her own success would spur other women on to a more active role in the community.

"I hope it will encourage them to raise their voices and take more space for leadership," she said.

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Kenyan Nobel winner Maathai, savior of trees, dies

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1 of 2. Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai participates in a discussion at the University of Nairobi in Nairobi in this March 8, 2010 file photo. Maathai has died in hospital where she was undergoing treatment for cancer, her organisation the Green Belt Movement said on September 26, 2011. Maathai, who won the 2004 Nobel Prize, was the founder of Green Belt Movement, a civil and women rights activist and also served as a Member of Parliament.

Credit: Reuters/Noor Khamis

By George Obulutsa and Kevin Mwanza

NAIROBI | Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:08am EDT

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaigns to save Kenyan forests, died in hospital on Sunday after a long struggle with cancer.

Maathai, 71, founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 to campaign for tree planting to prevent environmental and social conditions deteriorating and hurting poor people, especially women, living in rural Kenya.

Her movement expanded in the 1980s and 1990s to embrace wider campaigns for social, economic and political change, setting her on a collision course with the government of the then-president, Daniel arap Moi.

Maathai, who won the Peace Prize in 2004, had to endure being whipped, tear-gassed and threatened with death for her devotion to Africa's forests and her desire to end the corruption that often spells their destruction.

"It's a matter of life and death for this country," Maathai once said. "The Kenyan forests are facing extinction and it is a man-made problem."

"You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them."

Maathai was born in the central highlands of Kenya on April 1, 1940. She earned a master's degree in the United States before becoming the first woman in Kenya to receive a doctorate for veterinary medicine and be appointed a professor.

In 1989, Maathai's protests forced Moi to abandon plans to erect an office tower in Uhuru Park, an oasis of green that flanks the main highway running through the center of the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

"It is a sad moment for myself and this country at large," said Nairobi resident Gikonge Mugwongo.

"We have lost a serious personality who shaped not only Kenya but the world at large. We have lost a great mind, a great woman who could change lives in this country."

"MAGNIFICENT VISIONARY"

In 1999, Maathai was beaten and whipped by guards during a demonstration against the sale of public land in Karura Forest in Nairobi.

The forest covers more than 1,000 hectares and is home to wildlife such as duiker antelopes and civets, as well as caves used by Mau Mau fighters in their struggle against British rule.

She called the clearance of forests a "suicidal mission."

"To interfere with them is to interfere with the rain system, the water system and therefore agriculture, not to mention the other industries dependent on hydro-electricity."

Maathai's movement spread across Africa and has gone on to plant more than 47 million trees to slow deforestation and erosion. She joined the U.N. Environment Programme in 2006 to launch a campaign to plant a billion trees worldwide.

"Her departure is untimely and a very great loss to all of us who knew her -- as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and heroine -- or those who admired her determination to make the world a peaceful, healthy and better place for all of us," her movement said in a statement.

Tributes poured in for Maathai on social media from around the world.

"We join family and friends in mourning Prof. Wangari Maathai, a phenomenal woman, a friend and role model. You lived, you inspired," said Kenyan politician Martha Karua on her Twitter account.

Besides founding the Green Belt Movement, Maathai was also elected to parliament in 2002 and appointed deputy minister for the environment in 2003.

"Rest in peace Dr. Wangari Maathai. A great woman, an inspiration for many women across Africa, a magnificent visionary and embodiment of courage," Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said in a Twitter message.

(Additional reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by David Clarke; Editing by xxx)

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