Speculation on Nobel literature prize winner
October 01, 2003 Edition -1
Stockholm - The Swedish Academy will reveal this year's winner of the Nobel Prize in literature tomorrow.
But who the winner may be remains shrouded in a veil of secrecy, as the prestigious awards always are.
The 18 lifetime members of the 217-year-old Swedish Academy made the annual selection in deep secrecy at one of their weekly meetings and, following tradition, don't reveal the date of the announcement until two days beforehand.
Yesterday the academy said the name of the winner would be announced tomorrow.
In the meantime, the literary world is guessing about who would win this year's prestigious prize, which includes a cheque of more than 10-million kronor (about R9,2-million) and the bonus of an increased profile inside and out of the literary world.
Ylva Aaberg, of Sweden's Bromberg's publishing house, said she'd like to see South African writer J M Coetzee win the honour.
"There has been speculation it would be him for years," said Aaberg.
Coetzee, who won the Booker Prize in 1999 for his novel Disgrace, has been one of many acclaimed authors who are believed to be on the shortlist every year.
Anna Tillgren of publisher Bonnier said she favoured American Philip Roth, Inger Christensen of Denmark and fellow Swede Tomas Transtroemer as her choices.
"At any rate, it would be nice if a woman won," she said, referring to Christensen. American Toni Morrison was the last woman to win the prize, in 1993.
Last year's award went to Hungarian writer Imre Kertesz, whose fiction drew on his experience as a teenager in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
When British-based writer V S Naipaul received the award in 2001, books such as the nonfiction Among the Believers that had averaged 1 000 sales annually soon sold 30 000 to 40 000 copies.
The Nobel prize for medicine will be announced on October 6, followed by the physics prize on October 7, and chemistry and economics on October 8. All will be announced in the capital, Stockholm.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on October 10 in Oslo, Norway. - Sapa-AP
