The 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to the American poet Louise Glück "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."

Glück is a professor of English at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. She made her debut in 1968 with "Firstborn," and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 and the National Book Award in 2014.

She has published 12 collections of poetry and several volumes of essays on poetry. Her writing is characterized by a striving for clarity and focuses on themes of childhood and family relationships, according to notes from Anders Olsson, Chairman of the Nobel Committee.

"Snowdrops," from her 1992 Pulitzer-winning collection The Wild Iris, describes the miraculous return of life after winter.

"Averno" (2006) is an interpretation of the myth of Persephone's descent into hell in the captivity of Hades, the god of death.

Her latest collection was "Faithful and Virtuous Night" in 2014. This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna on Wednesday. They discovered the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool for "rewriting the code of life."

993 and the National Book Award in 2014. Credit: Robin Marchant/Getty Images On Tuesday, the Nobel Prize in Physics was given to Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for their discoveries about black holes.

The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice on Monday for the discovery of hepatitis C virus, which led to the development of tests and treatments.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday.