Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 Speculation

[maidenhair]

Get cracking!

Early Nobel Odds

 

[Daniel del Real]

Are we starting with that madness already? I was waiting for early August to open the thread

 

[Cleanthess]

If [insert name here] doesn't win the prize this year, I swear, it surely means that:
[the Swedish Academy members were bought off/ the prize is political /the prize is not political enough / the world is coming to an end soon /today's name ends on 'y'].

 

[redhead]

Given how the laureates these past few years, I would put my money this time on a female writer, perhaps Djebar.

 

[Daniel del Real]

Given how the laureates these past few years, I would put my money this time on a female writer, perhaps Djebar.

Well, since Englund arrived as permanent secretary it seems that he's determined to end with the droughts (I know he's not that influential as an individual, just trying to make a point)

2010: Mario Vargas Llosa/ 20 years for Spanish language
2011: Tomas Tranströmer/15 years without a poet and 37 for Swedes
2012: Mo Yan/First 100% Chinese writer
2013: US can start cheering for Roth one more time

 

[maidenhair]

What do you think of the Neustadt International Prize nominees for 2014? Anyone among them that might be in the mix? Ilya Kaminsky is certainly too young for the prize. I notice that Edward P. Jones is an US American , but probably his oeuvre is too slim for any Nobel consideration (I haven't read him at all). Murakami: no chance. And even though I like Cesar Aira's slim books, I do not consider him to be relevant for the Nobel (but I admit that having read only a couple of his many dozens of books, I am not in a good position to make any trustworthy statements about him...). Checking wikipedia and the Nobel library it seems that besides Aira and Murakami also Mia Couto and Duong Thu Huong have a wide-ranging oeuvre.

The Nominees
César Aira
Aira is an Argentine writer, translator and exponent of contemporary Argentine literature. He has published more than 70 books of stories, novels and essays. He writes at a fast rate, producing two to four novella-length books each year since 1993. He also has translated and edited books from France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Venezuela. Aira is nominated by Cristina Rivera-Garza, and his representative work is How I Became a Nun.

Mia Couto
Couto is the first Mozambican author to be nominated for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Couto published a poetry collection, Raiz de Orvalho(Root of dew), in 1983. His first book of short stories, Vozes Anoitecidas, was critically acclaimed in Portugal. An international jury at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair named his first novel, Terra Sonâmbula (1992; Eng. Sleepwalking Land, 2006), one of the 12 best African books of the 20th century. Couto is nominated by Gabriella Ghermandi, and his representative work is Sleepwalking Land.

Duong Thu Huong
Duong’s first novels, Journey into Childhood, Beyond Illusions, Paradise of the Blind and The Lost Life, became bestsellers in Vietnam before they were banned. Her next three works, Novel Without a Name, Memories of a Pure Spring and No Man’s Land, have only been published in foreign countries. She was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in recognition of significant contributions to the arts and literature in France. Duong is nominated by Andrew Lam, and her representative work is No Man’s Land.

Edward P. Jones
Jones is the author of The Known World, for which he won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His third book, All Aunt Hagar’s Children, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2006. Jones, an American author, also was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005 and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the art of the short story. Jones is nominated by Laleh Khadivi, and his representative work is All Aunt Hagar’s Children.

Ilya Kaminsky
Kaminsky is the first Ukrainian-born author to be nominated for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. His verse collection Dancing in Odessa won the Whiting Writer’s Award, the American Academy of Arts & Letters Metcalf Award, the Dorset Prize, Poetry magazine’s Ruth Lilly Fellowship, and was named 2004’s Best Poetry Book of the Year by ForeWord magazine. Kaminsky’s latest manuscript, Deaf Republic, also won Poetry magazine’s Levinson Prize. Kaminsky is nominated by Lauren Camp, and his representative work is Dancing in Odessa.

Chang-rae Lee
Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to the United States in 1968 at the age of 2. His first novel, Native Speaker, won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the American Book Award and the ALA Book of the Year Award. Lee currently teaches creative writing at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts. Lee is nominated by Krys Lee, and his representative work is The Surrendered.

Edouard Maunick
Maunick is a native of Mauritius, which makes him the first Mauritian to be nominated for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. His first poetry collection, Les Oiseaux du Sang, was published in 1954, followed by Les Manèges de la Mer (1964), Mascaret ou le Livre de la Mer et de la Mort (1966), Fusillez-moi (1970), Africaines du Temps Jadis (1976) and En Mémoire du Mémorable suivi de Jusqu’en Terre Yoruba (1979). Maunick is nominated by Ananda Devi, and his representative work is Mandéla mort et vif (1987; Eng. Mandela, Dead and Alive, 2001).

Haruki Murakami
Murakami, a Japanese author, has been praised by the British newspaper The Guardian as one of “the world’s greatest living novelists.” Murakami was previously nominated for the Neustadt Prize in 2008 and 2010, and he received the Frank Kafka Prize in 2006. His most recent book in English is IQ84. Murakami is up for his third nomination by Deji Olukotun, and his representative work is The Elephant Vanishes.

Ghassan Zaqtan
Zaqtan is the first Palestinian to be nominated for the Neustadt Prize. He is a poet, novelist and editor who has written many collections, including Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me and the play The Narrow Sea. Zaqtan is the founding director of the House of Poetry in the city of Ramallah and has served as director of the Palestine Ministry of Culture’s literature and publishing department. Zaqtan is nominated by Fady Joudah, and his representative work is Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me.

 

[maidenhair]

Btw, dear idiots over at the Man Booker International Prize, please just have a look at the internationality of the selection of the Neustadt prize to get an idea what a truly international shortlist looks like!

 

[maidenhair]

And for those new to the fun, some basic info:
Facts on the Nobel Prize (including very interesting statistics on the age of the winners)
Nomination and selection procedure

 

[maidenhair]

Skimming the Nomination Database on the Nobel webpage I am shocked by the large number of unknown writers who got nominated between 1901 and 1950 (unknown as seen from the 21st century) and how many of the giants (by today's standards) were never nominated. Please have a look for yourself, but now I wonder if it is the Nobel committee who is to blame for some of the strange selections during the first 50 years or rather the institutions, societies and individuals submitting the proposals. I really wonder who was more reactionary, the Nobel academy or the institutions...

I hope that this has improved in the meantime... I would love to take a look at the list of nominees of recent years... well, or maybe not...

 

[redhead]

Not too mention how popularity can wane and wax quite easily over the years. Heyse and Galsworthy were both giants in their own time. No one reads Heyse anymore, and if anyone reads Galsworthy it's because of the Forsyte television series

 

[Hamlet]

Skimming the Nomination Database on the Nobel webpage I am shocked by the large number of unknown writers who got nominated between 1901 and 1950 (unknown as seen from the 21st century) and how many of the giants (by today's standards) were never nominated. Please have a look for yourself, but now I wonder if it is the Nobel committee who is to blame for some of the strange selections during the first 50 years or rather the institutions, societies and individuals submitting the proposals. I really wonder who was more reactionary, the Nobel academy or the institutions...

I hope that this has improved in the meantime... I would love to take a look at the list of nominees of recent years... well, or maybe not...

That's why personally, I've never taken too much notice of the Nobel, it doesn't or rather, hasn't been important in informing my choice of reading. There are just too many other factors involved, including mood and personal bias, and what the cover looks like!

 

[maidenhair]

McCarthy is a great novelist, he has written at least two monumental novels that will be cherished for many years to come. But I fear that he has been compromising his reputation the last decade or so with much less relevant novels. The upcoming film script could turn out to be a new low point in that respect. The general public only knows him for those recent books, which is a shame. I you ask me, I think his last chance for the nobel would be to bring out another 'big' novel. Rumors have it that he has been working on a book with working title 'The Passenger' for more than 15 years. It is some kind of holy grail for McCarthy's devotees. Personally, I have my doubts as he is not getting younger... do you know any writer who has published a major work in her/his 80s?

 

[anchomal]

I'd love it to be Pynchon, but if it's going to be an 'American' this year I'd say Canada has a good shout with Margaret Atwood. She'll tick the gender box (which shouldn't matter, but probably does), she's won lots of big prizes and is widely admired, she's prolific, has written in a number of forms, and her best work shows a lot of ambition.

 

[Stevie B]

I'd love it to be Pynchon, but if it's going to be an 'American' this year I'd say Canada has a good shout with Margaret Atwood. She'll tick the gender box (which shouldn't matter, but probably does), she's won lots of big prizes and is widely admired, she's prolific, has written in a number of forms, and her best work shows a lot of ambition.

Do you think Atwood stands a better chance than Alice Munro? I know Munro is almost exclusively a short story writer, but perhaps that might work in her favor. On a completely non-literary note that may or may not have some bearing, I think Munro's humility and down-to-earth personality also give her an edge over Atwood.

 

[Septularisen]

.



Other possibilities:
Junot Diaz
Larry McMurtry
Richard Ford
Edward P. Jones
Jeffrey Eugenides (although he needs a few more books under his belt)
Marilynne Robinson
Jhumpa Lahiri (a few years down the line she could be a viable candidate)

Although, I think if it goes to an American, it should go to Pynchon. Great writer, and years from now, of contemporary American novelists, he'll be the one most read. It's a shame he didn't get that Pulitzer. They should've just given it to him rather than not award any that year.

John ASHBERY ; Don DeLILLO ; Paula FOX ; Joyce Carol OATES ; EL DOCTOROW...

 

[Septularisen]

Ok this year I will put my money on a big big name of the world literature. So my favorites would be : Milan KUNDERA ; Salman RUSHDIE ; Haruki MURAKAMI ; Philip ROTH ; Thomas PYNCHON ; Assia DJEBAR ; ADONIS ; Amos OZ and Ko UN... Wait and see.

 

[Cleanthess]

Of the "true American" laureates (no Singer or Brodsky, etc), only one has won the Nobel prize without first winning the Pulitzer (William Faulkner. Two (Bellow, Hemingway) won the Nobel almost directly after nabbing the Pulitzer, and another three (Buck, Steinbeck, Morrison) arguably would not have won the Nobel had it not been for their greatest works that got them the Pulitzer.

Meaning if we want to look at possible American candidates, starting out looking at past Pulitzer prize winners isn't a bad place to start.

Other possibilities:
Junot Diaz
Larry McMurtry
Richard Ford
Edward P. Jones
Jeffrey Eugenides (although he needs a few more books under his belt)
Marilynne Robinson
Jhumpa Lahiri (a few years down the line she could be a viable candidate)

Although, I think if it goes to an American, it should go to Pynchon. Great writer, and years from now, of contemporary American novelists, he'll be the one most read. It's a shame he didn't get that Pulitzer. They should've just given it to him rather than not award any that year.

There are many American writers I'd like to see win the prize. Shirley Hazzard, Cynthia Ozick, Annie Dillard, Robert Coover and Thomas Pynchon foremost among them. (I'm still sore about Elkin never winning it).

By the way, redheadhaz, good points about the Pulitzer. I'd even go as far as to say that between the Pulitzer, National and National Circle Prize winners you get a very good idea of the outstanding American fiction writers, and thus the Nobel candidates. For example, the National Book awards for fiction, up to 20 years ago:

1964 John Updike
1965 Saul Bellow
1966 Katherine Anne Porter
1967 Bernard Malamud
1968 Thornton Wilder
1969 Jerzy Kosinski
1970 Joyce Carol Oates
1971 Saul Bellow
1972 Flannery O'Connor
1973 John Barth
1974 Thomas Pynchon / Isaac Bashevis Singer
1975 Robert Stone / Thomas Williams
1976 William Gaddis
1977 Wallace Stegner
1978 Mary Lee Settle
1979 Tim O'Brien
1980 William Styron/ John Irving
1981 Wright Morris/ John Cheever
1982 John Updike/ William Maxwell
1983 Alice Walker/ Eudora Welty
1984 Ellen Gilchrist
1985 Don DeLillo
1986 E.L. Doctorow
1987 Larry Heinemann
1988 Pete Dexter
1989 John Casey
1990 Charles Johnson
1991 Norman Rush
1992 Cormac McCarthy
1993 E. Annie Proulx
1994 William Gaddis
1995 Philip Roth
2001 Jonathan Franzen
2003 Shirley Hazzard
2005 William T. Vollmann
2007 Denis Johnson
2012 Louise Erdrich

And the National Critics up to 20 years ago:
1975 E.L. Doctorow
1976 John Gardner
1977 Toni Morrison
1978 John Cheever
1979 Thomas Flanagan
1980 Shirley Hazzard
1981 John Updike
1982 Stanley Elkin
1983 William Kennedy
1984 Louise Erdrich
1985 Anne Tyler
1986 Reynolds Price
1987 Philip Roth
1988 Bharati Mukherjee
1989 E.L. Doctorow
1990 John Updike
1991 Jane Smiley
1992 Cormac McCarthy
1993 Ernest J. Gaines
1994 Carol Shields
1995 Stanley Elkin
2003 Edward P. Jones
2004 Marilynne Robinson
2007 Junot Diaz

 

[Daniel del Real]

McCarthy is a great novelist, he has written at least two monumental novels that will be cherished for many years to come. But I fear that he has been compromising his reputation the last decade or so with much less relevant novels. The upcoming film script could turn out to be a new low point in that respect. The general public only knows him for those recent books, which is a shame. I you ask me, I think his last chance for the nobel would be to bring out another 'big' novel. Rumors have it that he has been working on a book with working title 'The Passenger' for more than 15 years. It is some kind of holy grail for McCarthy's devotees. Personally, I have my doubts as he is not getting younger... do you know any writer who has published a major work in her/his 80s?

I don't think that McCarthy has anything to prove yet. His early works are well enough to make him deserving of any literary prize. Unfortunately what you say it's true, the Swedish Academy evaluates everything and if the latest works are not top quality or doesn't match the early gems of the writer they opt to give the prize to another writer they think it's at the pinnacle of his career.
When Saramago was about to get the prize in 1998, the committee was very pleased with his more recent novel translated, Blindness. However, in the summer, All the Names came out in Portugual, so they assigned someone to translate the book to see if this was any good. This is proof they are really careful to give the award, probably to maintain quality for the laureates (not that they've always achieved it).

 

[anchomal]

Do you think Atwood stands a better chance than Alice Munro? I know Munro is almost exclusively a short story writer, but perhaps that might work in her favor. On a completely non-literary note that may or may not have some bearing, I think Munro's humility and down-to-earth personality also give her an edge over Atwood.

Alice Munro writes beautiful stories, and would be a good choice, maybe a better choice. I prefer reading her books than Atwood's. When Atwood is good she is very good indeed, but she doesn't always do it for me. But I just feel that she is one of those writers who tick all the boxes, in the same way that Mario Vargas Llosa did. She takes on big subjects, has a political side and speaks out about things like the environment, and (since it seems like a sticking point as far as American candidates are concerned) can probably be viewed as being involved in the big conversation of literature (whatever that means).
Also, I wonder if the International Booker win will be held against Alice Munro. Also, if the prize is going to recognise the short story, I'd like to see it given to William Trevor, who in my opinion is at least as deserving.

 

[redhead]

John ASHBERY ; Don DeLILLO ; Paula FOX ; Joyce Carol OATES ; EL DOCTOROW...

I'll have to disagree with you on JCO. I've read a few of her works and she's never really clicked with me. If she wins the Nobel, it will be only because the academy decided to fill it's ladies quota. The rest I agree with you on. I was only pointing out Pulitzer Prize winners who have a decent shot at the Nobel.