Nominate Annie Proulx for the Nobel Prize?

[Lynne]

Shakes,

You piqued my curiosity, so here's the scoop:

From http://nobelprize.org/nomination/

"Each year the respective Nobel Committees send individual invitations to thousands of members of academies, university professors, scientists from numerous countries, previous Nobel Laureates, members of parliamentary assemblies and others, asking them to submit candidates for the Nobel Prizes for the coming year. These nominators are chosen in such a way that as many countries and universities as possible are represented over time."

It seems deliberately vague, doesn't it?  The FAQ's on the site goes a bit further:

http://nobelprize.org/nomination/literature/nominators.html

"The right to submit proposals for the Nobel Prize in Literature, based on the principle of competence and universality, shall by statute be enjoyed by:

1. Members of the Swedish Academy and of other academies, institutions and societies which are similar to it in construction and purpose;
2. Professors of literature and of linguistics at universities and university colleges;
3. Previous Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature;
4. Presidents of those societies of authors that are representative of the literary production in their respective countries."

I vote we petition all of the above we can find.

 

And here is a link about the writer Annie mentioned, Orhan Pamuk (Turkish):

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2006/index.html

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Euuuu Lynne, in the back of my mind there is a Jake and Elwood getting into a black car, Mission from God on their minds. It would be "noble" thing to pursue it, don't cha think?

[Lynne]

Euuuu Lynne, in the back of my mind there is a Jake and Elwood getting into a black car, Mission from God on their minds. It would be "noble" thing to pursue it, don't cha think?

Absolutely...to paraphrase, 'We're on a mission from Jack and Ennis.' 

[Lynne]

I split this thread from the 'I Met Annie Proulx and Adrian DelMar' thread because I think it's worth talking about if this is something we would like to pursue.

What would it take to wage a campaign to nominate Annie Proulx for a Nobel Prize?

A database compiled of universities with prominent English/Literature/Creative writing departments
One or more erudite letters of recommendation - BetterMost is lousy with erudite types
Some $ for stamps
And some time and energy to put it all together

What do other people think?

-Lynne

[Lynne]

Some more facts about the process...which makes me think we would need to get our lobby letters between September and January 1.  I wonder if earlier or later would be better??  2007 or 2008??

http://nobelprize.org/nomination/literature/process.html

Literature.

September - Nomination forms are sent out. The Nobel Committee sends out confidential forms to 600-700 persons and organizations who are qualified to nominate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

February - Deadline for submission. The filled-in forms must reach the Nobel Committee not later than January 31 of the following year. The Committee then screens the nominations and submits a list for approval by the Academy.

April - Preliminary candidates. After further studies, the Committee selects 15-20 names for consideration as preliminary candidates by the Academy.

May - Final candidates. The Committee further trims down the list to 5 priority candidates to be considered by the Academy.

June-August - Reading of productions. The members of the Academy read and assess the productions of the final candidates during the summer. The Nobel Committee also prepares individual reports.

September - Academy members confer. Members of the Academy have read the productions of the final candidates and discuss the merits of the different candidates' work.

October - Nobel Laureates are chosen. In early October, the Academy chooses the Nobel Laureate in Literature. A candidate must receive more than half of the votes cast. The Nobel Laureates names are then announced.

December - Nobel Laureates receive their prize. The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony takes place on December 10 in Stockholm when the Nobel Laureates receive their prize consisting of a medal, diploma, and a document confirming the prize amount.

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I am not well versed, but I am going to float this idea: I think there is a good case for Annie Proulx to be the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature based upon the phenominal effect the story Brokeback Mountain has had on people the world over.

Checking the Nobel website : http://nobelpeaceprize.org/ I find the following can make a nomination to the committee:

members of national assemblies and governments;

members of international courts of law;

university chancellors; university professors of social science, history, philosophy, law and theology;

leaders of peace research institutes and institutes of foreign affairs;

former Nobel Peace Prize laureates;

board members of organisations that have received the Nobel Peace Prize;

present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; (committee members must present their nomination at the latest at the first committee meeting after February 1);

former advisers at the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

So in the US, someone on the congressional level or higher, or more likely someone high in academia would have to be lobbied. Perhaps nothing would ever come of it, but to borrow the words Ossana and McMurtry put in Alma's mouth: "I think it would be nice."


 

[nakymaton]

That's the peace prize rather than the literature prize, though. I imagine that the literature prize nominations come from people who study literature, for the most part?

The recent trend has been to award the Literature prize to people who write in languages other than English. I wonder what it would take to convince the Nobel committee that an American was worthy of the prize?

[Lynne]

Mel,

This idea has been floating around for a few months.  I merged this topic w/one Truman & I had going in CT. I did quite a bit of research, including finding the nomination schedule.  My essential conclusion was that we would need to coordinate a lobby of professors at Universities with renown literature departments.

I think this would be a very worthy cause for us to pursue in the upcoming year.

-Lynne

[nakymaton]

Davidson College and the University of Colorado might be good places to start contacting people in lit departments, because both places had Annie Proulx speak recently. Jeff Mann, the Virginia Tech professor who wrote that really moving piece about going to see BBM for the first time, might also know some good departments to start with. I think the key would be to find someone connected with, I don't know, Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth/Columbia/University of Chicago/Stanford/Oxford/Cambridge/I-hope-I-didn't-leave-out-your-favorite-prestigious-university, and get him or her to contact other prestigious people in the field. I'm not a lit person, so I'm not connected to the right network.

[Mikaela]

The Nobel Price in Literature is distributed by the Swedish Academy: link to their site in English
It consists of a group of by and large pompous old Swedish men, appointed by secret ballot.

Of course there's a fair amount of lobbying going on. Probably most of it behind the scenes. So contacting relevant "lobbyists" of high academic standing surely might have an effect.

Not to be a wet blanket, but I don't think AP stands much of a chance. I think they'll consider her output too limited, and she hasn't just published something new that caught their attention. And moreover, the Academy mainly awards men writers. 

I must admit that my respect for the Academy went down the drain when they year after year failed to award Swedish author of children's literature Astrid Lindgren. She died a few years back, after a long life well lived, an event that created immense national mourning in all of Scandinavia. If ever an author deserved the prize, it was her. One can only surmise that the pompous old guys were of the outdated opinion that children's literature, even of her exceptional quality (and quantity) is not "literature". My respect for the Swedish Academy and the AMPAS actually are on the same level. I think both are uninformed and pathetic enough to snub Annie Proulx.