The deadline for nominations for the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature -- see who can submit nominations here -- was 31 January, and the Swedish Academy's Nobel point man Peter Englund spills some of the beans at his weblog, in Långa listan 2014, as they finalized the long longlist on Thursday.
No names, of course, but there were 271 suggestions, from which a list of 210 eligible names resulted -- 36 of them first-time nominees.
(2013: 195 longlisted, 48 first-timers; 2012: 210 longlisted, 46 first-timers.)
No other clues in Englund's post, beyond mention that: "Akademien fortsätter för övrigt med försöken att bredda och förbättra nomineringsprocessen". Maybe they're seeing too many of the same old suggestions, year in and year out (the decline in first-timers this year suggests as much) and are looking for ways to learn about other authors ?
While the Swedish Academy won't name names, some of the nominating bodies will -- though so far the only ones I've heard of are the Romanian Writers' Union's nominations: they reportedly nominated four authors: Nicolae Breban, Mircea Cărtărescu, Norman Manea, and Varujan Vosganian. Two of those are certainly authors-to-be-considered.
Meanwhile, the Ladbrokes-odds remain unchanged since they were posted some three months ago; it'll be interesting to see whether there's any movement now, now that there's at least a list of possible winners (maybe with some early favorites emerging) -- remember, you have to be in it to win it: if you're not nominated (and authors such as Proust and Kafka never were) you're out of luck.
No other clues in Englund's post, beyond mention that: "Akademien fortsätter för övrigt med försöken att bredda och förbättra nomineringsprocessen". Maybe they're seeing too many of the same old suggestions, year in and year out (the decline in first-timers this year suggests as much) and are looking for ways to learn about other authors ?
While the Swedish Academy won't name names, some of the nominating bodies will -- though so far the only ones I've heard of are the Romanian Writers' Union's nominations: they reportedly nominated four authors: Nicolae Breban, Mircea Cărtărescu, Norman Manea, and Varujan Vosganian. Two of those are certainly authors-to-be-considered.
Meanwhile, the Ladbrokes-odds remain unchanged since they were posted some three months ago; it'll be interesting to see whether there's any movement now, now that there's at least a list of possible winners (maybe with some early favorites emerging) -- remember, you have to be in it to win it: if you're not nominated (and authors such as Proust and Kafka never were) you're out of luck.