Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Royal Swedish Academy in Stockholm announced the winner of the prestigious prize on Thursday.

In describing his work, the Nobel committee said Mo merges folk tales, history and the contemporary “with hallucinatory realism.”

Mo is seen as one of China's foremost contemporary authors.

Nobel prize announcements began Monday with the medicine prize going to stem cell researchers John Gurdon of Britain and Japan's Shinya Yamanaka. Frenchman Serge Haroche and American David Wineland won the physics prize on Tuesday for work on quantum particles. Americans Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka won the chemistry prize on Wednesday.

The prestigious Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in economic sciences will be announced on October 15.

The winners will receive their prizes at formal ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10.