According to the Nobel website, the French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in literature. The judges wrote that he is an "'author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization'."

CNN reports that he produced 30 novels, and that "His work reflects ecological concerns, rebellion against the intolerance of Western nationalist thought, and his fascination with Native Americans."

Earlier this month, gamblers had placed the best odds for the $1.4 million prize on Italian author Claudio Magris and Joyce Carol Oates. Despite GalleyCat's protest, the committee followed Horace Engdahl's grim outlook and snubbed American literature: "They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining," said the Nobel secretary. (Photo via CUNY).