Nobel Prize in Literature Quiz

Question 1

Which American novelist won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954?

Accepted Answer

Ernest Hemingway

Answer

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Answer

John Steinbeck

Answer

William Faulkner

Question 2

Toni Morrison became the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Which year?

Accepted Answer

1993

Answer

1987

Answer

1990

Answer

1997

Question 3

Gabriel García Márquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. He was from which country?

Accepted Answer

Colombia

Answer

Mexico

Answer

Argentina

Answer

Cuba

Question 4

Which British author won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017?

Accepted Answer

Kazuo Ishiguro

Answer

Ian McEwan

Answer

Martin Amis

Answer

Salman Rushdie

Question 5

Samuel Beckett won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. He is best known for which play?

Accepted Answer

Waiting for Godot

Answer

Endgame

Answer

Happy Days

Answer

Krapp's Last Tape

Question 6

The Nobel Prize in Literature was established in 1901. Who endowed the Nobel Prizes?

Accepted Answer

Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite

Answer

A Swedish government fund

Answer

A Swedish royal foundation

Answer

The European Academy of Sciences

Question 7

Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. He was from which country?

Accepted Answer

Algeria (French Algeria)

Answer

France

Answer

Belgium

Answer

Switzerland

Question 8

Which author famously refused the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964?

Accepted Answer

Jean-Paul Sartre

Answer

Boris Pasternak

Answer

Doris Lessing

Answer

Samuel Beckett

Question 9

Pablo Neruda, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, was a poet from which country?

Accepted Answer

Chile

Answer

Argentina

Answer

Spain

Answer

Mexico

Question 10

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 was controversially awarded to which American musician?

Accepted Answer

Bob Dylan

Answer

Bruce Springsteen

Answer

Leonard Cohen

Answer

Paul Simon

Question 11

William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. He is known for his novels set in which fictional US county?

Accepted Answer

Yoknapatawpha County

Answer

Jefferson County

Answer

Maycomb County

Answer

Sutpen County

Question 12

Doris Lessing, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007, grew up primarily in which country?

Accepted Answer

Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

Answer

England

Answer

South Africa

Answer

Kenya

Question 13

Which Japanese author, who wrote Kafka on the Shore and Norwegian Wood, has been frequently predicted to win the Nobel Prize in Literature but hasn't yet?

Accepted Answer

Haruki Murakami

Answer

Kenzaburō Ōe

Answer

Yasunari Kawabata

Answer

Banana Yoshimoto

Question 14

Seamus Heaney, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, was from which country?

Accepted Answer

Northern Ireland

Answer

Republic of Ireland

Answer

Scotland

Answer

Wales

Question 15

Mo Yan, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, is from which country?

Accepted Answer

China

Answer

Japan

Answer

South Korea

Answer

Taiwan

Question 16

Which Polish poet won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996?

Accepted Answer

Wisława Szymborska

Answer

Czesław Miłosz

Answer

Adam Zagajewski

Answer

Zbigniew Herbert

Question 17

What is the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded for according to Alfred Nobel's will?

Accepted Answer

'The most outstanding work in an ideal direction' — can be for one work or a lifetime

Answer

A specific outstanding work published that year

Answer

Lifetime achievement across a body of work

Answer

The most commercially successful novel of the decade

Question 18

Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. She is from which country and is best known for which form?

Accepted Answer

Canada, short stories

Answer

USA, novels

Answer

Australia, poetry

Answer

UK, essays

Question 19

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Peter Handke from Austria, causing significant controversy. Why?

Accepted Answer

He had defended Serbia's conduct during the Yugoslav Wars and spoken at Slobodan Milošević's funeral

Answer

He was too young at 27

Answer

He had plagiarised another work

Answer

He publicly criticized the Nobel Committee

Question 20

Rudyard Kipling won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. Which of his works features a boy raised by wolves in the Indian jungle?

Accepted Answer

The Jungle Book

Answer

Kim

Answer

The Just So Stories

Answer

Plain Tales from the Hills