Orhan Pamuk, author most recently of Snow, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature today.  You may remember Pamuk from his recent trial for "insulting Turkishness." The Swedish Academy, in characteristic classy fashion, says only that Pamuk, "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the  clash and interlacing of cultures." 

The New York Times has a fairly good write-up (via the AP), as well as a video interview from earlier in the year. 

Here's his official website.