• Source: Nobel Committee for Literature

The Nobel Committee for Literature is the Nobel Committee responsible for evaluating the nominations and presents its recommendations to the Swedish Academy, which then selects, through votation, the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The committee members – usually five – are elected for three years among the Swedish Academy members, with the Permanent Secretary serving as an associate member. In assessing the qualifications of candidates, the committee invites the assistance of specially appointed expert advisers, which include translators, literary critics, and linguists.




Committee duties and deliberations


Every year in September, the Nobel Committee sends out nomination forms to hundreds of individuals and organizations qualified to nominate. Some uninvited nominations from other literary societies, academies, and individuals are also accepted. Such forms must be completed and submitted on or before January 31st, the Nobel Committee's deadline for submissions.
From February to April, the Nobel Committee screens the nominations and presents a list for approval by the Swedish Academy. Immediately after the nominees are approved, the Committee evaluates and creates a list of 25 to 20 candidates for preliminary evaluation. After the deliberations, the Committee selects five priority candidates that they thoroughly assess specifically on their body of literary work and merits. From June to August, each Committee member prepares their respective findings and criticisms of the candidates.
In September, the Academy members receive the Committee members' assessments of the finalists and discuss the literary merits of the different candidates' contributions. Within this month, the Committee again sends out nomination forms for the following year's deliberations. In October, days before the announcement, the Academy selects the Nobel laureate in Literature through votation. A candidate must receive more than half of the votes cast. It rarely happens that the Academy proposes another candidate aside from the Committee's finalists, which causes distress and conflicts among the members.

In 2021 – the year when Tanzanian-born British author Abdulrazak Gurnah won the prize – Committee member Ellen Mattson was asked about what criteria the Committee uses in selecting a laureate, she responded saying: "It's all about quality. Literary quality, of course. The winner needs to be someone who writes excellent literature. Someone who where you feel when you read that there's some kind of power, a development that lasts through books, all the books. But the world is full of very good, excellent writers, and you need something more to be a laureate. It's very difficult to explain what that is. It's something you're born with, I think. The romantics would call it a divine spark. For me, it's a voice that I hear in the writing that I find within this particular writer's work and nowhere else. And it's very difficult to explain what it is, but I always known when I find it. So it's something you're born with. A talent that gives that extra dimension to that particular writer's work."
Committee chair Anders Olsson also expressed his thoughts in October 2019 – the year American poet Louise Glück won – of what they look for writer worthy of becoming a Nobel laureate, saying: "We do have a criteria and the criteria have changed. Now we are looking much more for the global totality. I mean we have, really. It's necessary for us to widen our perspectives more and more. Previously we had a more, let's say, eurocentric perspective of literature and now we are looking all over the world. And also, previously, it was much more male-oriented. Now we have so many female writers that are really great. So the prize and the whole process with the prize has been intensified and is much more broader in its scope."




Current members


The following Swedish Academy members form the current Nobel Committee for Literature since 2024:




Former members


Carl David af Wirsén Chair 1900-1912
Carl Snoilsky 1900-1903
Clas Theodor Odhner 1900-1903
Hans Hildebrand 1903-1913 (Chair pro tempore 1912-1913)
Erik Axel Karlfeldt 1907-1931
Harald Hjärne Chair 1913-1921
Per Hallström 1913-1946 (Chair 1922-1946)
Henrik Schück 1920-1936
Anders Österling 1921-1981 (Chair 1947-1970)
Fredrik Böök 1929-1950
Hjalmar Hammarskjöld 1932-1946
Sigfrid Siwertz 1942-1963
Hjalmar Gullberg 1947-1961
Eyvind Johnson 1959-1972
Henry Olsson 1960-1971
Karl Ragnar Gierow 1963-1982 (Chair 1970-1980)
Erik Lindegren 1964-1968
Lars Gyllensten 1968-1987 (Chair 1981-1987)
Artur Lundkvist 1969-1986
Johannes Edfelt 1972-1987
Östen Sjöstrand 1979-1990
Kerstin Ekman 1983-1987
Sture Allén 1987-1999
Kjell Espmark Chair 1987-2004
Katarina Frostenson 2002-2015, associate member 2015-2018
Kristina Lugn 2008-2020
Peter Englund associate member 2009-2015
Sara Danius associate member 2015-2019
Sara Stridsberg springterm 2018
Jesper Svenbro 2019-2020




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Daftar penerima Nobel
• Penghargaan Nobel Fisika
• Daftar pemenang Hadiah Ig Nobel
• Britania Raya
• Universitas Tsinghua
• Rabindranath Tagore
• Jerman
• Anarkisme
• Universitas Warwick
• Bayi tabung
• Nobel Prize in Literature
• Nobel Committee for Literature
• Nobel Committee
• 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature
• List of Nobel laureates in Literature
• List of Indian Nobel laureates
• 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature
• 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature
• Nobel Prize controversies
• 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature