Bob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The BBC reports that Dylan has received the prize “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.

The award will be presented alongside this year’s other five Nobel Prizes on 10 December, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s 1896 death.

Dylan is the first American to win the award since Toni Morrison in 1993 and follows in the footsteps of Eugene O’Neill, TS Eliot, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck.

The Guardian reports that, earlier today, Ladbrokes has Ngugi wa Thiong’o as as favourite at 7/2, with Haruki Murakami tied with the Syrian poet Adonis at 6/1.

The November 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on The Specials, plus Bon Iver, Bob Weir, Shirley Collins, Conor Oberst, Peter Hook, Bad Company, Leonard Cohen, Muscle Shoals, Will Oldham, Oasis, Lou Reed, Otis Redding, Nina Simone, Frank Ocean, Michael Kiwanuka and more plus 140 reviews and our free 15-track CD