The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
The Nobel Prize
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Alternative Nobel Prize
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I voted. When is the shortlist announced?
Mod
As it appears to have been a public vote, I expect Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood and J.K. Rowling to appear on the shortlist.
If I'd known it was there to vote on, I'd have been wavering between Winterson and Pynchon. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is someone who seems due a Nobel but I still haven't read him. And Olga Tokarczuk got the MBI only this year.
There are a lot of popular authors here - the list ended up taking hours as I was tidying up all the stray extra profiles as I went along.
That's great, I think I missed the publicity about this at the time.So, four of these will be announced? (I understand the three with most votes + a librarian choice?)
Mod
President of the jury: Ann PÃ¥lsson, Editor and Independent Publisher.
Jury members:
Lisbeth Larsson Professor of Literature Gothenburg University, visiting Professor at California University of Berkeley and University of Minnesota, awarded the Fulbright-Hildeman Award, awarded the John Landquist Prize, Honorary Doctorate at University of Southern Denmark.
Peter Stenson, Editor and Independent Publisher, former translator, critic, former chairman Marcel Proust Society, former Publisher & President Atlantis Bokförlag
Gunilla Sandin, Head of Library, former Program Director Göteborg Book Fair, Project Leader AIR Literature Västra Götaland, twice a member of the The August Prize jury for fiction, Board member Läsrörelsen/The Reading Movement.
Says on another page that the Academy is dissolved on 10th December. So are they intending this to be a one off, or to choose different panellists every year?
My impression from reading one of the linked articles in your top post is that it is intended to be a one-off, but I suppose if it's successful, and the Nobel continues to have problems...
Mod
If they want this to be taken seriously as an alternative to the Nobel that has a chance of even replacing the Nobel in terms of importance, they need the first winner to be someone who seems like the most conventional choice, someone who is least likely to evoke a strong negative reaction with anyone. Picking someone like Rowling (whose post-Potter books are AWFUL anyway) would be the worst choice. In fact, the more there is popular public input the more it is the literary equivalent of "The People's Choice Awards" and not the Oscars.There are a lot of names on the list whose work I don't know at all, so I can't really say much about who I think should win. But I think Pynchon would be a really interesting pick, if for no other reason than it would guarantee that the winner will not come to a ceremony in person to accept the award. Maybe strike him off for the first year of the award for that reason alone.
Finally, I realize they have to go with awarding it to living writers only to be seen as a challenger to the Nobel, but the idea of a "Literary Hall of Fame" that does not exclude the dead seems more interesting to me. Or even if they awarded two people each year, one living and one dead, that might be a workable idea.
Looking at their prize criteria the first sentence is this:"The prize will be awarded to a writer of literary fiction who within the reader has entered the story of mankind in the world."
Unless I am having trouble parsing that, it looks like they didn't run it by a native English speaker at all. "Within the reader"? What could that even mean? I'm also a bit surprised "mankind" is in there, but again that's something maybe only a native speaker might be sensitive to.
Mod
Antonomasia wrote: "Atwood seems the obvious choice for someone who is popular, frequently discussed WRT the trad Nobel, and appropriate to the circumstances of the prize. Adichie too, though she is young by modern No..."I had the same thought.
Mod
I've never heard of Maryse Condé before. I'll be sure to read one of her books soon. Thúy has been on my radar so maybe I'll finally pick her up, too.Murakami and Gaiman I've read before. It's been a while since I've read Murakami... I think I've fallen out of love with his work, but I'm looking forward to Killing Commendatore.
I love Gaiman a lot. I think he's an amazing author and human being. His works are, to me, what Harry Potter is to a lot of people -- but infinitely better, in my opinion.
Also, weren't the judges going to pick one regardless of popular vote?
Yes my thoughts as well. Condé used to feature in the Nobel odds though higher than a lot of better known writers (25-1 in 2015 for example) and was one of the Man Booker candidates in 2015 when it was an award for an author's entire works. So an impressive choice - but as you say not one you would expect from the same electorate who voted for Murakami and Gaiman.
Maddie wrote: "Also, weren't the judges going to pick one regardless of popular vote? "They did say that originally yes. Although now seem to be presenting all 4 as chosen by the public.
Mod
Either Condé or Thúy must be that one.
Condé was, out of the authors on the list whose works needed librarianing, the one whose books took the most time to sort out, so at least I know a bit about what she wrote now, even if I haven't read any whole books.
Thúy I think is well-known in Canada and has won a lot of awards there. Maybe the Canadians all voted for her, haha.
If I had been asked to predict a female Canadian author on the shortlist it wouldn't have been that one...
Mod
There have been a few recent online controversies (which I only read of the other day) which might have dented the public vote for Atwood. (It doesn't seem like this Alternative Nobel vote was well-known enough to reach, e.g. millions of casual viewers of the Handmaid's Tale TV show.) So if voters include a large proportion of the sort of people who notice and care about these things then they could have an effect.
There might even be four different controversies:
petitioning for better procedures in the sacking of a Canadian academic, Stephen Galloway,
publishing an article suggesting there were problems with #metoo
supporting Joseph Boyden in a cultural appropriation controversy (this was mentioned in something I read but haven't found a separate article about that)
comments about similarities between 9/11 and Star Wars scenes
exhausting! It's brave to publish anything these days when people have to contend with this sort of stuff.
On the Galloway incident e.g.
Mod
Antonomasia wrote: "There have been a few recent online controversies..."You forgot my favourite of all the Atwood media controversies, her objection to a condo development near her house.
As for the Galloway issue and her concerns with #metoo (that arose directly out of the Galloway issue), she has been somewhat vindicated in that the accusation against Galloway has turned out to have no validity. She was criticized for publicly defending him early on, but she also knew the case a lot better than most of the public, so it wasn't just a simple case of her defending a (male) friend against a (female) accuser.
I like the makeup of this list. I actually voted on this and if I remember correctly, you got two votes. I know I used one on Murakami since had a book coming out this year. I couldn't tell you who got my other vote. But I like the mix of known and lesser known writers and the variety of fictions represented. I especially like that inclusion of these two popular writers There seems to be decent publicity for this non-Nobel. I haven't seen if there is a cash award to accompany the publicity. But I imagine the world publicity will benefit the writers I'll buy the new Thuy after seeing the shortlisting of the author. I guess I'll sentimentally favor Murakami because of his age, but would be happy if any of them won since it should generate some positive feeling once more.
I find it hard to get to excited about a lot of prizes, so it does not really matter to me who wins this. But I was thinking it might be interesting to have a different sort of alternative Nobel Prize that would be awarded to someone who was eligible for the Nobel, did not win it, and now cannot win it on account of being dead. A sort of "overlooked by the Nobel" supplementary list of names they could have and probably should have honoured.There are the obvious candidates (Tolstoy, Joyce, Borges, Ibsen, Frost, among others), but what might be more interesting are candidates whose regard in the literary world really only emerged after they died (Kafka comes immediately to mind).
Anyway, for this prize the only author of the four on the list I had not heard of is Maryse Condé, and her book Segu sounds interesting so I might check it out. It it was a goal of the creators of this award to raise awareness of some lesser known writers, mission accomplished.
Murakami has asked to be withdrawn from the prize as "he prefers to concentrate on his writing, far from media attention."
Paul wrote: "Murakami has asked to be withdrawn from the prize as "he prefers to concentrate on his writing, far from media attention.""According to his website, the "most recent" personal literary prize he has won (separate from prizes for specific publications) was the Jerusalem Prize in 2009. That event was politically controversial:
In 2012 when asked about the possibility he might win the Nobel Prize he said, "I don't want prizes. That means you're finished."
Fair point and the Jerusalem Prize controversy may have put him off. The Franz Kafka Prize was years ago.
Paul wrote: "Murakami has asked to be withdrawn from the prize as "he prefers to concentrate on his writing, far from media attention.""I can see how a writer high on list of potential Nobel winners for many years might feel uneasy about the prospect of winning Alternative Nobel. Not only would it feel like an affront, it might also ruin his chances to win the actual thing.
That’s was my first thought, Jibran. I have no idea what Murakami is thinking, of course.
Announcement due 12 Swedish time tomorrow.I normally watch the real Nobel ones live. I still remember thinking 'I am not sure who that author is but their names sounds amusingly similar to Bob Dylan' before the awful truth dawned. And I was quite emotional when Ishiguro won last year.
Think I will wait to read this one on Twitter - although will be interesting. My bet is Maryse Condé.
A good decision I think. Someone who clearly welcomes the publicity - but also someone who if the bookies odds are a guide (and those did seem to be influenced by leaks) was a contender for the real thing.
Well the overall withdrawal of Murakami kind of took something away from the balance of finalists that was established originally, but I looked at this as a feel-good attempt to get some of the tarnish off the situation. Conde was a good choice.
I have not read Maryse Condé. What is the best book to start with?I just glanced at the Guardian article; a post colonial storyteller sounds like the old Booker type of books. I am eager to read her!
Haven't read her yet either and from Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ doesn't look if any of my GR friends may have done either.But from what I have seen the two obvious starting points are Segu or (particularly for those familiar with the Crucible) Titutba, Black Witch of Salem.
Love to hear from anyone more familiar with her work than my Google based analysis though.
I've only read What Is Africa To Me, her autobiography, and I read it as part of my ongoing Seagull Press obsession. Well written, biting, thought-provoking. I recommend it.
I haven’t read her, but am looking forward to starting with Segu. Also just saw that World Editions will be publishing two new books by Condé in English.
I haven't read her either, but the library has a copy of Windward Heights, so I will try that first before buying any.
This is a very good blog post on our new alternative Nobel laureate 
The Mookse and the Gripes
Books mentioned in this topic
Windward Heights (other topics)Authors mentioned in this topic
Kim Thúy (other topics)Neil Gaiman (other topics)
Haruki Murakami (other topics)
Maryse Condé (other topics)
Johannes Anyuru (other topics)
More...
Official site:
Some press coverage:
The longlist was selected by Swedish librarians.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Nigeria
Johannes Anyuru - Sweden
Margaret Atwood - Canada
Paul Auster - US
Silvia Avallone - Italy
Nina Bouraoui - France
Anne Carson - Canada
Maryse Condé - Guadeloupe
Don DeLillo - US
Inger Edelfeldt - Sweden
Kerstin Ekman - Sweden
Elena Ferrante - Italy
Neil Gaiman - Great Britain
Jens Ganman - Sweden
Siri Hustvedt - US
Jenny Jägerfeld - Sweden
Jonas Hassen Khemiri - Sweden
Jamaica Kincaid - US
David Levithan - US
Édouard Louis - France
Ulf Lundell- Sweden
Sara Lövestam - Sweden
Cormac McCarthy - US
Ian McEwan - Great Britain
Haruki Murakami - Japan
Joyce Carol Oates - US
Nnedi Okorafor - US
Sofi Oksanen - Finland
Amos Oz - Israel
Sara Paborn - Sweden
Agneta Pleijel - Sweden
Thomas Pynchon - US
Marilynne Robinson - US
Meg Rosoff - US
J.K. Rowling - Great Britain
Arundhati Roy - India
Jessica Schiefauer - Sweden
Patti Smith - US
Zadie Smith - Great Britain
Peter Stamm - Switzerland
Jón Kalman Stefánsson - Iceland
Sara Stridsberg - Sweden
Donna Tartt - US
Kim Thúy - Canada
Olga Tokarczuk - Poland
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - Kenya
Jeanette Winterson - UK