Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer is pictured at his home in Stockholm, in this file photo taken March 31, 2001. [Photo/Agencies]

STOCKHOLM - Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature, announced Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Thursday.

"The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2011 is awarded to the Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer 'because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality,'" said Englund.

Last year's literature prize went to Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa.

Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite, established the Nobel Prizes in his will in 1895. The first awards were handed out six years later.

This year's Nobel Prize amounts to 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.46 million).