Bob Dylan was named the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday in a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award to someone primarily seen as a musician.

The Swedish Academy cited the American musician for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

Dylan had been mentioned in the Nobel speculation for years, but few experts expected the academy to extend the prestigious award to a genre such as pop music.

Reporters and others gathered for the announcement at the academy's headquarters in Stockholm's Old Town reacted with a loud cheer as his name was read out.

.

Keep Reading

Georgia Power's Plant Bowen in Cartersville is shown. The utility wants to add about 10,000 megawatts of power supplies in just five years, mainly to serve data centers. (Hyosyb Shin/AJC 2015)

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Featured

A MARTA operator is seen inside the control room of one of the new MARTA trains during the unveiling of these trains on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez