| 1901 | Sully Prudhomme | France | poet |
| 1902 | Theodor Mommsen | Germany | historian |
| 1903 | Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson | Norway | novelist, poet, dramatist |
| 1904 | José Echegaray y Eizaguirre | Spain | dramatist |
| Frédéric Mistral | France | poet |
| 1905 | Henryk Sienkiewicz | Poland | novelist |
| 1906 | Giosuè Carducci | Italy | poet |
| 1907 | Rudyard Kipling | U.K. | poet, novelist |
| 1908 | Rudolf Christoph Eucken | Germany | philosopher |
| 1909 | Selma Lagerlöf | Sweden | novelist |
| 1910 | Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse | Germany | poet, novelist, dramatist |
| 1911 | Maurice Maeterlinck | Belgium | dramatist |
| 1912 | Gerhart Hauptmann | Germany | dramatist |
| 1913 | Rabindranath Tagore | India | poet |
| 1915 | Romain Rolland | France | novelist |
| 1916 | Verner von Heidenstam | Sweden | poet |
| 1917 | Karl Gjellerup | Denmark | novelist |
| Henrik Pontoppidan | Denmark | novelist |
| 1918 | Erik Axel Karlfeldt (declined) | Sweden | poet |
| 1919 | Carl Spitteler | Switzerland | poet, novelist |
| 1920 | Knut Hamsun | Norway | novelist |
| 1921 | Anatole France | France | novelist |
| 1922 | Jacinto Benavente y Martínez | Spain | dramatist |
| 1923 | William Butler Yeats | Ireland | poet |
| 1924 | Władysław Stanisław Reymont | Poland | novelist |
| 1925 | George Bernard Shaw | Ireland | dramatist |
| 1926 | Grazia Deledda | Italy | novelist |
| 1927 | Henri Bergson | France | philosopher |
| 1928 | Sigrid Undset | Norway | novelist |
| 1929 | Thomas Mann | Germany | novelist |
| 1930 | Sinclair Lewis | U.S. | novelist |
| 1931 | Erik Axel Karlfeldt (posthumous award) | Sweden | poet |
| 1932 | John Galsworthy | U.K. | novelist |
| 1933 | Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin | U.S.S.R. | poet, novelist |
| 1934 | Luigi Pirandello | Italy | dramatist |
| 1936 | Eugene O’Neill | U.S. | dramatist |
| 1937 | Roger Martin du Gard | France | novelist |
| 1938 | Pearl Buck | U.S. | novelist |
| 1939 | Frans Eemil Sillanpää | Finland | novelist |
| 1944 | Johannes V. Jensen | Denmark | novelist |
| 1945 | Gabriela Mistral | Chile | poet |
| 1946 | Hermann Hesse | Switzerland | novelist |
| 1947 | André Gide | France | novelist, essayist |
| 1948 | T.S. Eliot | U.K. | poet, critic |
| 1949 | William Faulkner | U.S. | novelist |
| 1950 | Bertrand Russell | U.K. | philosopher |
| 1951 | Pär Lagerkvist | Sweden | novelist |
| 1952 | François Mauriac | France | poet, novelist, dramatist |
| 1953 | Sir Winston Churchill | U.K. | historian, orator |
| 1954 | Ernest Hemingway | U.S. | novelist |
| 1955 | Halldór Laxness | Iceland | novelist |
| 1956 | Juan Ramón Jiménez | Spain | poet |
| 1957 | Albert Camus | France | novelist, dramatist |
| 1958 | Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (declined) | U.S.S.R. | novelist, poet |
| 1959 | Salvatore Quasimodo | Italy | poet |
| 1960 | Saint-John Perse | France | poet |
| 1961 | Ivo Andric | Yugoslavia | novelist |
| 1962 | John Steinbeck | U.S. | novelist |
| 1963 | George Seferis | Greece | poet |
| 1964 | Jean-Paul Sartre (declined) | France | philosopher, dramatist |
| 1965 | Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov | U.S.S.R. | novelist |
| 1966 | S.Y. Agnon | Israel | novelist |
| Nelly Sachs | Sweden | poet |
| 1967 | Miguel Ángel Asturias | Guatemala | novelist |
| 1968 | Kawabata Yasunari | Japan | novelist |
| 1969 | Samuel Beckett | Ireland | novelist, dramatist |
| 1970 | Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn | U.S.S.R. | novelist |
| 1971 | Pablo Neruda | Chile | poet |
| 1972 | Heinrich Böll | West Germany | novelist |
| 1973 | Patrick White | Australia | novelist |
| 1974 | Eyvind Johnson | Sweden | novelist |
| Harry Martinson | Sweden | novelist, poet |
| 1975 | Eugenio Montale | Italy | poet |
| 1976 | Saul Bellow | U.S. | novelist |
| 1977 | Vicente Aleixandre | Spain | poet |
| 1978 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | U.S. | novelist |
| 1979 | Odysseus Elytis | Greece | poet |
| 1980 | Czesław Miłosz | U.S. | poet |
| 1981 | Elias Canetti | Bulgaria | novelist, essayist |
| 1982 | Gabriel García Márquez | Colombia | novelist, journalist, social critic |
| 1983 | Sir William Golding | U.K. | novelist |
| 1984 | Jaroslav Seifert | Czechoslovakia | poet |
| 1985 | Claude Simon | France | novelist |
| 1986 | Wole Soyinka | Nigeria | dramatist, poet |
| 1987 | Joseph Brodsky | U.S. | poet, essayist |
| 1988 | Naguib Mahfouz | Egypt | novelist |
| 1989 | Camilo José Cela | Spain | novelist |
| 1990 | Octavio Paz | Mexico | poet, essayist |
| 1991 | Nadine Gordimer | South Africa | novelist |
| 1992 | Derek Walcott | Saint Lucia | poet |
| 1993 | Toni Morrison | U.S. | novelist |
| 1994 | Oe Kenzaburo | Japan | novelist |
| 1995 | Seamus Heaney | Ireland | poet |
| 1996 | Wisława Szymborska | Poland | poet |
| 1997 | Dario Fo | Italy | dramatist, actor |
| 1998 | José Saramago | Portugal | novelist |
| 1999 | Günter Grass | Germany | novelist |
| 2000 | Gao Xingjian | France | novelist, dramatist |
| 2001 | Sir V.S. Naipaul | Trinidad | novelist |
| 2002 | Imre Kertész | Hungary | novelist |
| 2003 | J.M. Coetzee | South Africa | novelist |
| 2004 | Elfriede Jelinek | Austria | novelist, dramatist |
| 2005 | Harold Pinter | U.K. | dramatist |
| 2006 | Orhan Pamuk | Turkey | novelist |
| 2007 | Doris Lessing | U.K. | novelist |
| 2008 | Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio | France | novelist, essayist |
| 2009 | Herta Müller | Germany | novelist |
| 2010 | Mario Vargas Llosa | Peru | novelist, dramatist |
| 2011 | Tomas Tranströmer | Sweden | poet |
| 2012 | Mo Yan | China | novelist, short-story writer |
| 2013 | Alice Munro | Canada | short-story writer |
| 2014 | Patrick Modiano | France | novelist |
| 2015 | Svetlana Alexievich | Belarus | journalist, prose writer |
| 2016 | Bob Dylan | U.S. | singer, songwriter |
| 2017 | Kazuo Ishiguro | U.K. | novelist |
| 2018** | Olga Tokarczuk | Poland | novelist, poet, essayist |
| 2019 | Peter Handke | Austria | novelist, poet, essayist, playwright |
| 2020 | Louise Glück | U.S. | poet |
| 2021 | Abdulrazak Gurnah | Tanz. | novelist |
| 2022 | Annie Ernaux | France | novelist, memoirist |
| 2023 | Jon Fosse | Norway | novelist, playwright, poet |