The Nobel Prize in Literature went to Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke in 2019.
The Swedish Academy announced Tokarczuk as the 2018 laureate and Handke as the 2019 laureate at the same announcement in October 2019. This happened because no Literature Prize was awarded in 2018 after a crisis weakened the academy’s membership and credibility.
Tokarczuk was cited for a narrative imagination that represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life. Handke was cited for influential work that explored the periphery and specificity of human experience. Tokarczuk became the 2018 recipient, while Handke received the 2019 prize.
This arrangement is often stated imprecisely as “two winners of the 2019 prize.” The award years were different, even though both prizes were announced together in 2019.