South African fiction writer J.M. Coetzee won the 2003 Nobel Prize in literature, the Swedish Academy announced October 2. He received $1.3 million.
Born in 1940 in Cape Town, Coetzee is the author of over fifteen books, including the novels In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, Foe, Age of Iron, The Master of Petersburg, and Disgrace, as well as a book of literary essays, Stranger Shores.
He has won many other literary awards, including the CNA Prize, South America's premier literary award (three times); the Booker Prize (twice); the Jerusalem Prize; the Lannan Literary Award; the Irish Times International Fiction Prize; and the Commonwealth Literary Award.