Doris Lessing Wins 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature

I cannot even begin to describe how utterly excited I am that Doris Lessing has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She is just absolutely one of my favorite authors, with Briefing for a Descent into Hell and The Fifth Child being two of the most amazing books I've ever read, especially the latter—such a truly brilliant commentary on the perils of insularity, a quietly vociferous argument in favor of diversity. The Nobel Prize Academy, in presenting the award, called her an "epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny." Yes, yes, yes! ZOMG, I am actually all a-flutter!

The oldest person to win a Nobel for literature, Lessing was only the 34th female laureate since the prizes began in 1901 and the 11th woman to take the literature award.

Lessing, who was shopping when the news of her Nobel broke and learned of it from reporters, said the prize had dealt her the literary equivalent of the best possible hand in poker. "I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one. I'm delighted to win them all, the whole lot," she told reporters outside her London home. "It's a royal flush."

Jane Friedman, chief executive of Lessing publisher HarperCollins, called the Nobel a complete surprise. "This is such wonderful news. This is absolutely extraordinary," she told Reuters at the Frankfurt Book Fair. "She has been an icon for women for a lifetime."

All right, now I'm blubbing.

Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said Lessing's work had been of great importance to other writers and to the broader field of literature.

"She has been a subject for discussion (by the academy) for quite some time, and now the moment was right. Perhaps we could say that she is one of the most carefully considered decisions in the history of the Nobel Prize," he told Reuters after announcing Lessing had won.

"She has opened up a new area of experience that earlier had not been very accepted in literature. That has to do with, for instance, female sexuality."

Nicholas Pearson, Lessing's editor at HarperCollins division the Fourth Estate, called the news "thrilling".

"Those early books changed the face of literature -- the description of the inner lives of women," he told Reuters.

And while I'm busy just being insanely happy, I want to note that Reuters is all kinds of ROCK for treating this like the big story it well and truly is.