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Nobel in Literature to Be Announced Oct 12

Posted on: Friday, 6 October 2006, 09:00 CDT

By MATT MOORE

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature will be announced Oct. 12, the Swedish Academy said Friday, keeping the literay world guessing for nearly another week.

The secretive academy, which selects the winner of the prestigious award, has a tradition of keeping prize followers guessing, never revealing the date of the announcement until a few days before it is made.

The academy changed its procedures this year, saying it would reveal the announcement date - which is always a Thursday - on the Friday before it is made. Previously, it had waited until the Tuesday before the announcement.

On its Web site, the academy said the name of the winner would be revealed Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. (7 a.m. EDT). The winner will receive $1.4 million, a diploma, gold medal and a handshake from King Carl XVI Gustaf on Dec. 10.

The Swedish Academy also tapped two writers to replace two members who died this year.

Poet and playwright Kristina Lugn replaced Lars Gyllensten, who died May 25.

Born in 1948, she has written several volumes of poetry and drama, including "To My Husband, If He Could Read" and "The Night Orienteers." Her dramatic works include "Stolen Jewels" and "The Women by the Swan Lake."

Poet and literary critic Jesper Svenbro replaced Osten Sjostrand, who died May 13. Svenbro has published several volumes of poetry along with works in French on Greek literature.

There is no short list of possible winners, but buzz has centered on Syrian poet Adonis, whose real name is Ali Ahmad Said, and controversial Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk. Other contenders, at least in the eyes of the media and on betting Web sites, include Americans Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth and Swedish poet Thomas Transtromer.

The academy will not say who it has considered or who has been nominated.

British playwright and poet Harold Pinter won last year's prize.

The Nobel Prize in economics will be announced Monday. The winner of the peace prize will be announced Oct. 13 in Oslo, Norway.

Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine went to Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for discovering a powerful way to block the effect of specific genes, opening a potential new avenue for fighting diseases as diverse as cancer and AIDS.

On Tuesday, Americans John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the physics prize for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of how the universe was created.

On Wednesday, American Roger D. Kornberg was awarded the prize in chemistry for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins.

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On the Net:

http://www.svenskaakademien.se

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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