Stockholm, Sweden - Norwegian author Jon Fosse has won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable," the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday.

Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Literature, described Fosse "as one of the most recognized and widely performed playwrights of our time," who is also acclaimed for his novels, children's books, short stories, essays and poetry.

Born in 1959, he has a heavily pared down style that has come to be known as "Fosse minimalism," the academy said, adding that his writing exposes "man's loss of orientation."

He also translates other authors' works into Norwegian.

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His "immense oeuvre" spans "a variety of genres," the academy added in a statement.

I am the Wind is one of his most famous plays while the novel trilogy Wakefulness, Olav's Dreams, and Weariness has been widely lauded.

He spent his childhood and youth in a small village on a fjord on the west coast of Norway. Here he found inspiration for his prose and plays which have been translated into 40 languages and performed on major stages around the world since the mid-1990s.

His compatriots celebrate him as the most successful Norwegian playwright since Henrik Ibsen.

The Nobel laureates in medicine, physics, and chemistry were announced from Monday to Wednesday in Stockholm, with the Nobel Peace Prize following on Friday in Oslo. The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences will be awarded on Monday.