Austrian · b. 1942
Peter Handke won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2019 for "an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience." The Austrian author's early plays—including "Offending the Audience"—attacked theatrical convention. His novels, including "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick" and "A Sorrow Beyond Dreams," turn inward, tracking consciousness with phenomenological precision. Handke's politics—defending Serbia during the Yugoslav Wars—made his Nobel Prize controversial.