Swedish poet Transtroemer wins Nobel Literature Prize

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, transluscent 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. Much of his work has been translated into English by Scottish poet Robin Fulton and American poet Robert Bly, a personal friend. His poems - described by Publishers Weekly as "mystical, versatile and sad" - have been translated into more than 50 languages. Tipped as a potential Nobel prize winner for many years, he 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.