Today in our poetry news round-up we take a look at some of the favourites to be named the two winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature ahead of the official announcement.
The Nobel Prize for Literature
It has been a while since we have heard anything about the
Nobel Prize for Literature. Things have in fact been very quiet from the
members of the Swedish Academy who make the decision regarding the winner since
they were plagued by a case of sexual harassment last year and decided to
postpone the awards ceremony.
Accusations were made last year against the husband of one of the judges on the panel, this in combination with a scandal over an information leak led to the decision being made by the committee to postpone the award for a year and deal with these issues first. Now the wait is almost over and on Thursday at 1pm, the Swedish Academy is expected to announce not one but two names to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature – the winners for both this year and last year. There are a total of 210 writers who have been nominated.
In the run-up to the announcement the world and of course the bookmakers are speculating on just who the winners might be. Based on previous years decisions the betting is that the poet or writer who will eventually be named the winner of the Nobel Prize of literature (times two) will be amongst the group of favourites but will not be the absolute favourite.
For several years Philip Roth, Murakami Haruki of Japan and
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o from Kenya have been names that have appeared in the top 10
list of favourites. However, this year two Hungarians have also joined the list
of possibles. Good odds are being put on Péter Nádas and László Krasznahorkai
to be in with a change of being named. The last Hungarian to win a Nobel Prize
was Imre Kertész in 2002.
The Chinese writer Deng Xiaohua, who is better known as
Can Xue, is also considered to be in with a big chance of being named, she is
being ranked fourth currently on some of the betting sites. Her books have been
translated and also published outside of China and her work is widely acclaimed
in the West.
The list of other popular choices to be named a Nobel
Prize for Literature winner include Anne Carson the Canadian Essayist, Margaret Attwood
the Canadian writer and poet who is responsible for The Handmaid’s Tale, Maryse
Conde who is a French, Guadeloupean writer and two more Chinese writers poet
Yang Lian and writer Yu Hua.
The winner in 2016 took everyone by surprise, the singer
and musician Bob Dylan. However, the prize reverted back to its more
traditional path in 2017 when Kazuo Ishiguro the Japanese writer was named.
Whilst the winners are due to be announced on Thursday they will have to wait
until December before they are awarded their prizes. The presentation ceremony
takes place on 10th December; the anniversary of the death of Alfred
Nobel. The King of Sweden is responsible for handing out the science,
literature and economics prizes whilst the peace prize is awarded in Oslo by
the Norwegian Nobel Committee.