STOCKHOLM -- Tomas Transtroemer, the Swedish poet and translator who was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in literature, has died. He was 83.
Transtroemer passed away Thursday after a short period of illness, Albert Bonniers Foerlag, his publisher, said on behalf of his family in a statement on its website Friday.
Known for his depiction of nature and his economy of form, Transtroemer won "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality," the Swedish Academy in Stockholm said when awarding the 2011 prize.
Transtroemer began writing poetry as a student at Soedra Latin School. He published his first collection of poems, Seventeen Poems, in 1954, and established himself as a leading voice of his generation by 1966's Windows & Stones: Selected Poems, the academy said in 2011. The author translated into Swedish the works of poets including the American Robert Bly, who introduced him in the U.S. in the 1960s, and Hungary's Janos Pilinszky.
Transtroemer, who worked as a psychologist with juvenile offenders, continued to write after a stroke in 1990 left him with difficulty speaking.
His lyrical, surreal works explored the natural world, "falling somewhere between dream and nightmare," the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry said on awarding him a Lifetime Recognition Award in 2007.
Metro on 03/28/2015