John M. Coetzee (South Africa)

Another chapter for Nobel winner…

Australia 's spirit and beauty prompted the 2003 Nobel literature laureate, John M. Coetzee, to become an Australian citizen.

The South African-born multi-award winning author and academic had travelled the world and lived in the UK and USA before choosing to settle in Adelaide in 2002. This year he became a citizen at a ceremony held during Writers' Week as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts.

Mr Coetzee first visited Australia in 1991, as a guest of the University of Queensland. In 1996 he was invited to Adelaide for Writers' Week.

'I was attracted by the free and generous spirit of the people, by the beauty of the land itself, and – when I first saw Adelaide – by the grace of the city that I now have the honour to call my home,' he said.

Now an honorary research fellow at the University of Adelaide and a dedicated and active member of the Writers' Week organising committee, it was appropriate that he share his special citizenship ceremony with literary fans at this year's event.

Festival-goers witnessed Mr Coetzee make his pledge of commitment to Australia.

In becoming a citizen one undertakes certain duties and responsibilities,' Mr Coetzee told the crowd in a rare public address. 'One of the more intangible of those duties and responsibilities is no matter what one's birth and background, to accept the historical past of the new country as one's own.'

Mr Coetzee concluded by saying that it was a very happy day for him and thanked all those who had come along to share it with him.