Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Is A Win For Tulsa

Bob Dylan is now the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Swedish Academy made the surprising announcement from Stockholm, calling his songs "poetry for the ears."

The 75-year-old musician has sold more than 100 million records and still tours. In fact, he's playing the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville on the 22nd, and the Brady Theater in Tulsa on the 23rd.

There are still tickets available for both concerts.

Dylan's Nobel Prize is a win for Tulsa as well. Local experts say this puts a spotlight on the city, which is now home to Dylan's archives.

10/13/2016 Related Story: Bob Dylan Wins 2016 Nobel Prize In Literature

Some items include a leather jacket he wore during his controversial electric guitar performance at the Newport Folk Festival and the actual tambourine that inspired Mr. Tambourine Man.

Bob Dylan archive director, Michael Chaiken said, "I think like everyone else, I was shocked."

Chaiken said, overall, there will be about 6,000 items, including his writings and his instruments.

It's all made possible by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of Tulsa.

Chaiken said Dylan's award is one for Tulsa, too.

"Bob receiving the Nobel really just kind of affirms the work we're doing here in Tulsa,” he said. “It's just kind of a nice confirmation that what we're doing is significant."

Some critics have questioned whether Dylan's work merits a Nobel Literature Prize.

TU professor, Sean Latham, who taught a course on Bob Dylan last spring, said the musician will go down in history as a cultural icon.

"Part of the work we can do. and what the archive makes available. is for us to understand Dylan as a piece of American history that now stretches over. what, six decades of history? That's an extraordinary thing." He said.

Will future generations agree? Chaiken said only time can tell.

"The only thing that's really going to settle that debate is time. And that's the reason we're preserving all this stuff," he said.