Bartleby
Moderator
It's that time of year again, when we share some thoughts on writers who may win this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, and along the way we get to talk about new writers to read.
Up to 2021 we resorted to the Nobel Library to have an idea of the authors the Swedish Academy was probably reading during their summer break, when they assess and compare the worth of the shortlisted writers (by now they must have already chosen the 5-6 names competing for the 2023 prize). But since last year they've seemed to have limited access to the Library and the books checked out, not showing if a book by a given writer has been taken... The thing is, in past years the winners had several books checked out (several volumes by Tokarczuk and Handke, and before she won, Ernaux, for instance). The anomaly was Gurnah in 2021 (even tho some member claimed after he was announced as the winner that a few of his books had been borrowed). However, if we take a look at the books taken in that year, many African writers are heavily represented, suggesting maybe they were weighing them against Gurnah? In any case here are some lists of books borrowed from previous years, which perhaps might indicate to a possible near future winner:
So maybe we could see a winner in poet/essayist/translator Anne Carson? Novelist and memoirist Peter Nadas? Experimental chinese writer Can Xue? Dramatist/novelist/poet Jon Fosse? Who knows... Anyway, who are your favourites and who do you think will win this year's Nobel?
Up to 2021 we resorted to the Nobel Library to have an idea of the authors the Swedish Academy was probably reading during their summer break, when they assess and compare the worth of the shortlisted writers (by now they must have already chosen the 5-6 names competing for the 2023 prize). But since last year they've seemed to have limited access to the Library and the books checked out, not showing if a book by a given writer has been taken... The thing is, in past years the winners had several books checked out (several volumes by Tokarczuk and Handke, and before she won, Ernaux, for instance). The anomaly was Gurnah in 2021 (even tho some member claimed after he was announced as the winner that a few of his books had been borrowed). However, if we take a look at the books taken in that year, many African writers are heavily represented, suggesting maybe they were weighing them against Gurnah? In any case here are some lists of books borrowed from previous years, which perhaps might indicate to a possible near future winner:
So maybe we could see a winner in poet/essayist/translator Anne Carson? Novelist and memoirist Peter Nadas? Experimental chinese writer Can Xue? Dramatist/novelist/poet Jon Fosse? Who knows... Anyway, who are your favourites and who do you think will win this year's Nobel?
