– Secret list –
Still, the pundits could be wrong as “what is for sure is that the Swedish Academy likes to surprise,” Gustav Kallstrand, a curator at the Nobel Museum, said.
In February, the academy compiles a secret list of all nominations submitted by an exclusive group of “qualified people” that includes literature professors and former laureates. This year there were about 220 names.
By May, the list has been whittled down to five names, whose works Academy members study in detail during the summer. The winner is then traditionally announced in mid-October.
Neither the public nor the writers know anything about what is said during the deliberations.
“There are of course people that hope and wish that they are on the list but they never know,” said the academy’s administrative director, Odd Zsiedrich.
“Only individuals receive the prize. … Nation, gender, religion means nothing. Geography is not our subject,” a member of the academy, Per Wastberg, wrote in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.
“Can an author get the prize in spite of his political orientation? Of course. Can you get it because of this orientation? Never!” he wrote.
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