This is Nobel Prize Week. Prizes have been awarded for Medicine (the brain’s inner GPS system, which probably works better than any of these) and Physics (did you know that LED lights are only twenty years old?). The Chemistry Prize will be awarded later today. While the science laureates are no doubt deserving, it’s the Literature and Peace prizes which usually get more attention from the media and the world. While the nominees are not made public until fifty years later, there is always plenty of speculation. This year’s winner of the Literature Prize will be, according to bookmakers, either Haruki Murakami or Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Murakami’s name has been mentioned before for the Literature Prize. Ladbroke’s has him and Thiong’o as joint favorites at 4/1 to scoop the eight million kronor. “It was looking for months as though Murakami would head into the announcement day as the hot favorite, but [Ngũgĩ] has captured the imagination late on (odds cut from 12/1, to 6/1 then 4/1) and he could easily become the clear favorite very soon,” said Ladbroke’s spokesman Alex Donohue. Other writers possibly in the running are Philip Roth, Patick Modiano, Syrian poet Adonis, and Bob Dylan (an outsider at 50/1). There were more than 200 writers nominated for this year’s award.
And according to the Guardian, the Peace Prize should go to Chelsea Manning. Or Helmut Kohl. Or Edward Snowden. Or maybe Pussy Riot. Others think Pope Francis has a lock on it. If he is chosen, he will be the first pontiff to win the Prize. No doubt he will tweet about it, and no doubt his tweet will be favorited by @Dalai Lama. Of course, not winning does not mean you’re a loser in your chosen field. James Joyce never won. Neither did Thomas Edison. Stephen Hawking has yet to be recognized.
