J.M. Coetzee accepts Nobel Prize for Literature

Two-time winner of the Booker Prize and internationally reknowned South African writer, John Maxwell Coetzee (pronounced "kut-SEE-uh") accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature on December 10. He is the second South African to do so after Nadine Gordimer, who won in 1991.

Coetzee's work has been called uncompromising and philosophical. He is as much a thinker as a writer and has been hailed for his thematically challenging and cerebrally rigorous work. His latest novel, Elizabeth Costello tells the tale of "a distinguished and aging Australian novelist whose life is revealed through an ingenious series of eight formal addresses."

Read an excerpt from Coetzee's latest novel, Elizabeth Costello.