German author Herta Muller has won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced Thursday.

Romanian-born German writer Herta Mueller leaves her apartment after she had won the 2009 Nobel literature prize in Berlin, October 8, 2009. Mueller, who charted the brutality and oppressiveness of Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship, was lost for words when she learnt she had won the 2009 Nobel literature prize. Mueller is known for works such as “The Land of Green Plums” which she dedicated to Romanian friends killed under Ceausescu’s Communist rule and “The Appointment” in which a Romanian woman sews notes saying “Marry Me” into suits of men bound for Italy. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

The Nobel Prizes have been awarded annually since 1901 to those who ” conferred the greatest benefit on mankind during the preceding year.”

The annual Nobel Prizes are usually announced in October and are handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite.

Each prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma and a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (1.4 million U.S. dollars).

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