Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature this morning for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

Dylan is the first songwriter to win the award. He also becomes the first American to win since novelist Toni Morrison in 1993 as the 75-year-old was announced as the recipient of the honor this morning in Stockholm.

Sara Danius, secretary of the Swedish Academy, said Dylan had been chosen because he was “a great poet in the English speaking tradition.”