On Thursday, the Nobel Prize Museum was visited by 2021 literature laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, who is in Stockholm this week. During his visit, he donated his dictionary and took the opportunity to sign a chair in the museum’s Bistro. He will be returning this evening Friday 29 April at 18.00 CET, for a conversation on the museum’s stage.

Abdulrazak Gurnah brought with him his Oxford English Dictionary, which has sat on his desk and he has used for decades. Gurnah’s notes and underlinings in the well-worn dictionary confirm that it has served as an important tool for him. He also took the opportunity to sign a chair in the museum’s Bistro. The chair had previously also been signed by the 2019 physics laureates.

“I thought I was supposed to sign all the chairs,” he said at the sight of the Bistro’s sixty black chairs. The crowd that had gathered to watched the signing ceremony burst into laughter.

“We always ask laureates who visit us to bring along an object that has meant something special to them. It helps us to convey their stories,” says Erika Lanner, Director of the Nobel Prize Museum.

The Nobel Prize Museum has a growing collection of donated artefacts related to the laureates. These include such items as a handwritten manuscript from physics laureate Albert Einstein and the shawl that peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai wore when she gave a speech to the UN General Assembly. Such artefacts help the museum to tell the stories of the laureates. These objects are usually handed over during the Nobel Week in December.