The poetry of Bob Dylan

Dylan’s work is a bridge between many worlds. A fan is seen here browsing at a bookstore in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Photo: AFP

Among the contenders for this year’s Nobel Prize for literature were venerable writers like Salman Rushdie, Don DeLillo, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Joyce Carol Oates, Ursula K. LeGuin, Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, John Banville and Philip Roth.

Though Bob Dylan’s name had been under consideration for the last few years, he was definitely an outsider. The potential winners made up an elite club of literati and few people expected the judges’ decision.