J.M. Coetzee, a South African writer whose fiction deals with the cruelty and foibles of humankind, was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature Thursday.
Rather than expressing the customary enthusiasm and gratitude, Coetzee issued a statement saying: "It came as a complete surprise. I was not even aware that the announcement was pending." He then went on to detail his academic plans for this semester at the University of Chicago and said he will soon publish a translation of Dutch poetry.
Born in 1940, John Maxwell Coetzee has published two novellas, two memoirs, seven novels and several collections of critical essays. He was the first writer to win the Booker Prize twice - in 1983 for "The Life & Times of Michael K" and in 1999 for "Disgrace."
Coetzee was a faculty member in the Department of English at UB from 1968 to 1971 and was a Butler Professor of English at UB in 1984 and 1986.
He lives in Australia but comes to the United States for about 10 weeks each year to teach literature. His next work, before the Dutch poetry, is "Elizabeth Costello," a fictional tale told through a series of lectures, to be published by Viking Penguin this month.
The Nobel committee praised Coetzee, who "in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
