Nobel-winning poet Tomas Transtromer dies at 83

Nobel Literature Prize winning Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer died Thursday after a short illness, according to Swedish publisher Bonniers.

Transtromer published his debut collection, “Seventeen Poems,” at the age of 23. He is the author of more than 15 collections of poetry and his work has since been translated into more than 50 languages. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2011, the first time a poet had won the prize since 1996.

Transtromer also studied psychology at Stockholm University and split his time between poetry and psychology, including working at a center for juvenile offenders upon graduation.

In 2011, to commemorate the poet’s Nobel prize, NewsHour’s chief arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown spoke to Poetry Magazine senior editor Don Share.

“Like the best poetry you can find, his poems have great mysteries and landscapes and particularities in them, the details that we like to find in poems but also the great truths and visions that we want to be illuminated by when we read a poem so he’s really got the best of everything,” said Share.

Transtromer was 83.