German writer Herta Mueller won the 2009 Nobel prize for literature, the award committee said on Thursday.

The Swedish Academy, which decides the winner of the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.4 million) prize, recognised Mueller for her ability to depict 'the landscape of the dispossessed'.

All but one of the prizes was established in the will of 19th century dynamite tycoon Alfred Nobel and have been handed out since 1901. The economics award was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968. – Reuters