Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature is a Swedish literary award presented annually to an author from any country. The Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, is the institution that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Established facts

  1. The sealed reference account explains that Academy members read candidates' works in their original languages. When no member masters a shortlisted author's language, translators and oath-sworn experts provide samples of the writing.

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  2. The literature prize comprises a gold medal, a diploma bearing a citation and a monetary award. The sealed reference account states that the monetary amount depends on the Nobel Foundation's income for the relevant year.

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  3. The award recognizes an author's body of work as a whole, although individual works may be singled out as particularly noteworthy.

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  4. In the selection procedure described by the sealed reference account, Academy members vote in October, and a candidate receiving more than half of the votes is named the literature laureate.

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  5. The sealed reference account describes nominations as open to Academy members, members of literature academies and societies, professors of literature and language, previous Nobel literature laureates and presidents of writers' organizations. It excludes self-nomination.

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  6. The sealed reference account describes a staged evaluation: proposals are due by February 1, the Academy's Nobel Committee reduces the field to around 20 candidates by April, and the Academy approves five shortlisted names by May. The following four months are spent reading and reviewing those candidates' works.

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  7. Alfred Nobel's 1895 will established literature as one of five prize fields intended to recognize those conferring the greatest benefit on mankind. Its literary criterion called for the person who had produced the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.

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