The 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on Thursday to UK-based Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose work puts an emphasis on colonialization and refugees. The award-giving body announced in a statement that the 72-year-old African writer won the prestigious award “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.” Gurnah said during an interview that was published on social media he was both “surprised and humbled” by the award, explaining that at first when he was informed about it, he thought it was “a prank.” “I think it’s just brilliant and wonderful,” Gurnah told news agency Reuters. “I am very grateful to the Swedish Academy for nominating me and my work.” “It’s just great—it is just a big prize, and such a huge list of wonderful writers—I am still taking it in,” he said. “It was such …