As I mentioned last week, five names have been submitted to the Swedish Academy as the likely finalists for this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, and the shortlist will be finalized in a few days' time.
In Izvestia Liza Novikova now has a (Russian) Q & A with the Swedish Academy's point-man on the prize,Петер Энглунд Peter Englund.
He doesn't let anything good slip -- though it is strongly implied that Paulo Coelho will not be getting the prize this (or any) year (still, they have apparently not gone so far as to put Dan Brown et al. on a blacklist ... not that I can imagine too many of the authorities they rely on having submitted the likes of these names for consideration).
Englund does acknowledge/claim that the Swedish Academy is up to speed on the Russian scene (and at least Horace Engdahl -- who used to lead the Nobel proceedings, before Englund -- knows the language). And he confirms -- as has already been widely reported -- that Vladimir Nabokov was at least nominated for the prize on several occasions (nominations are usually only made public fifty years after the fact).
So for now -- until someone spies what all the Swedish Acadmey members are reading all summer ... -- no new insight into who the final five are for this year's prize.
In Izvestia Liza Novikova now has a (Russian) Q & A with the Swedish Academy's point-man on the prize,
Englund does acknowledge/claim that the Swedish Academy is up to speed on the Russian scene (and at least Horace Engdahl -- who used to lead the Nobel proceedings, before Englund -- knows the language). And he confirms -- as has already been widely reported -- that Vladimir Nabokov was at least nominated for the prize on several occasions (nominations are usually only made public fifty years after the fact).
So for now -- until someone spies what all the Swedish Acadmey members are reading all summer ... -- no new insight into who the final five are for this year's prize.