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The Alternative Nobel Prize in Literature Shortlist Is Here

Erika Harlitz-Kern

Staff Writer

Erika Harlitz-Kern holds a doctorate from a Swedish university and can't get enough of history, books, and music. Her earliest memories involve a comic book and a Dutch troubadour. She has travelled South Asia on a shoestring, although nowadays she spends most of her vacations in the Mississippi Delta. Lives with her husband in South Florida, because sooner or later they would've ended up there anyway. Blog: The Boomerang Twitter: EH_Kern

The New Academy has announced the alternative Nobel Prize in Literature shortlist for 2018. The shortlist is the result of a global online voting campaign where people from all over the world could vote for forty-seven international authors nominated by Swedish librarians.

Kim Thúy. Photo: Jean Francois, Penguin Random House Canada.

Based on the voting results, the forty-seven nominated authors have now been reduced to four finalists. These finalists are Haruki Murakami (Japan), Kim Thúy (Canada), Maryse Condé (France/Guadeloupe), and Neil Gaiman (United Kingdom).  The winner will be chosen by a jury of four and will be announced on October 12. The award will be handed out on December 9. The following day The New Academy intends to dissolve.

The New Academy is a non-profit organization that formed in the wake of the scandal that has rocked the Swedish Academy and which resulted in the postponement of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature. The New Academy is not affiliated with either the Nobel Foundation or the Swedish Academy.

For more information about the alternative Nobel Prize in Literature, the New Academy, and how to financially contribute to the prize and the award ceremony, go to the website of The New Academy.

Interested in reading up on everything that’s going on with the Nobel Prize in Literature? Check out these previous posts on Book Riot.

A Closer Look at the Alternative Nobel Prize in Literature Longlist.

The New Academy Releases the Alternate Nobel Longlist.

Alternative Nobel Prize in Literature Announced.

The Nobel Prize in Literature: Where Do We Go From Here?

The Nobel Prize in Literature Cancelled in the Wake of #MeToo.

The Swedish Academy Collapses. Two More Members Have Resigned.

The Disintegration of the Swedish Academy. Is This the End for the Nobel Prize in Literature?