The Alternative Nobel Prize, Shortlist

Hello Gentle Reader

The Alternative Nobel Prize, has listed the following writers, as those who have received the majority votes to be considered heavily on the shortlist. The following four writers are:

Haruki Murakami – Japan

Maryse Condé – Guadeloupe

Neil Gaiman – United Kingdom

Kim Thúy – Vietnam/Canada

From a longlist of forty-seven writers, the above four are what the shortlist remains. When reviewing the shortlist in comparison to the longlist, one is left slightly baffled and even wondering. On the longlist, twelve writers were nominated from Sweden and another twelve were nominated for the United States of America, for a grand total of twenty four writers being nominated from those two countries alone. The shortlist, which in part was drafted by the votes collected online, apparently paid neither attention, or mind to those authors hailing from those regions.

Overall the shortlist appears rather shocking when one considers some of the writers who were included on the longlist such as: Margaret Atwood, J.K. Rowling, Elena Ferrante, Don DeLillo, Olga Tokarczuk, Thomas Pynchon, Cormac McCarthy, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. The only writer, named on the shortlist that has ever been considered a frontrunner for the Nobel Prize for Literature, is: Haruki Murakami. Maryse Condé, has been discussed lightly on the edges—she was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize; while Neil Gaiman, has never been considered for the prize (at least to our knowledge), and this would be the first time Kim Thúy, has had any connection near or otherwise to the Nobel Prize for Literature, and subsequent speculation.

This makes for an interesting shortlist; but it also means the merits of the shortlist are also brought into question. Whenever an organization or an institution solicits the of the public, the results can always eschewed and criticized for lacking any depth or knowledge on the institutions part, in which case they would rely on the populist perspective in order to make a decision. It can certainly be stated, this is not the Nobel Prize for Literature, and it is certainly not a shortlist which would be associated with the Swedish Academy.

In the end, one can wish the shortlisted authors the best of luck. My bets are, is one will probably see Haruki Murakami walking away with the award, considering his reputation and international appeal.

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

Take Care

And As Always

Stay Well Read

M. Mary