My first thought was I won’t have any friends: Louise Glück on winning The Nobel Prize for Literature 2020

When asked if there is any work of hers she would recommend new readers to start from, to be acquainted with her work, the poet answered: "There isn't any."

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"It's too new, you know. I don't know really what it means," she said. (Source: Nobel Prize/Twitter)

American poet and essayist Louise Glück won The Nobel Prize for Literature on September 8. Post the announcement, an interview of the poet was recorded and later shared by the Nobel Prize on Twitter. The snippet, strictly under two minutes, gives a fitting glimpse into the poet who has carved out her own space in the literary landscape through her sparse but pointed prose, infusing them with clarity of thought laudable and enviable.

ALSO READ | Louise Glück wins Nobel Literature Prize 2020: Know about the American poet

The poet began the conversation expressing hesitation to be recorded. She didn’t particularly mind but she “really need to have some coffee”. She was consequently asked her thoughts on the honour bestowed on her. “I have no idea. My first thought was I won’t have any friends because most of my friends are writers,” she said before dismissing the fear.

“It’s too new … it’s too early here.”

Take a listen to this brief conversation with new Literature Laureate Louise Glück, recorded shortly after the announcement of her #NobelPrize: pic.twitter.com/g6qg4lf84r

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 8, 2020

“It’s too new, you know. I don’t know really what it means. It is a great honour…I think practically I wanted to buy another house in Vermont. I have a condo in Cambridge and I thought wow I can buy a house. But mostly I am concerned for preservation of daily life with people I love…it is disrupted,” she continued.

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When asked if there is any of her works she would recommend new readers to start from, to be acquainted with her work, the poet answered: “There isn’t any.” She has her reasons though. “The books are very different one from one another. I will suggest they not read my first book. I like my recent works…Averno would be a place to start.

The American poet Louise Glück – awarded this year’s #NobelPrize in Literature – was born 1943 in New York and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Apart from her writing she is a professor of English at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Learn more: https://t.co/P3I8RhCeKh

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 8, 2020

In one of Literature Laureate Louise Glück’s most lauded collections, ‘The Wild Iris’ (1992), she describes the miraculous return of life after winter in the poem ‘Snowdrops’.

Read the poem at: https://t.co/P3I8RhCeKh #NobelPrize

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 8, 2020

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