Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk on Thursday won the 2006 Nobel Prize for literature, Turkey's semi- official Anatolia news agency reported.

The Swedish Academy said that "Pamuk, in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."

"I am very happy and honored," Pamuk told Swedish Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, adding that he would arrive in Stockholm to receive his prize.

The prize ceremony is scheduled to be held on Dec. 10 in Stockholm, the report said.

Pamuk, who was born in Istanbul in 1952, studied architecture at the Istanbul Technical University.

However, he left the architecture school after three years to become a full-time writer and graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the University of Istanbul in 1976.

Pamuk was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York City from 1985 to 1988, a period which also included a visiting fellowship at the University of Iowa. He has lived in Istanbul his entire life other than those three years in the United States.

As one of Turkey's most prominent novelists, Pamuk is the recipient of numerous Turkish and international literary awards. His works have been translated into more than forty languages.

Some of his works are "Sessiz Ev (The Silent House) - 1984", " Beyaz Kale (The White Castle) -1985", "Kara Kitap (The Black Book) -1990", "Yeni Hayat (The New Life) - 1995", "Benim Adim Kirmizi ( My Name is Red) - 2000", "Kar (Snow) - 2002", "Istanbul: Hatiralar ve Sehir (Istanbul: Memories of a City) - 2005".

Source: Xinhua