STOCKHOLM // The Nobel literature jury has hired more experts to review work by authors writing in non-European languages in an attempt to broaden the scope of the prize.
The move comes after criticism that the Swedish Academy, which picks the literature winners, is too euro-centric in its selections - Europeans have won seven of the last 10 prizes.
The experts "are our scouts out in the world and should help us to not miss important authors," Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the academy, said on Tuesday.
Mr Englund said in the past two years the academy boosted to between 10 and 15 the number of freelance experts proposing works in languages that jury members have not mastered.
Before, it only enlisted the help of a handful of such experts.
"The big problem is not the English-speaking part of the world - there is no language area that has received more Nobel Prizes in literature than the English language," Mr Englund said.
"What if we miss an American author or if we miss an English author - that's not what keeps me up at night," Mr Englund said. "But it is rather what does our competence look like when it comes to Indonesian literature?"
No American has won since Toni Morrison, in 1993. Canada is home to at least three of the world's most respected authors, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro and Michael Ondaatje. But the last Canadian to receive the Nobel was Saul Bellow in 1976, who left for the US as a boy and became identified with his long-time home, Chicago.
Last year's laureate, the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, was the first South American writer to win the award since Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1982, and there hasn't been an Asian winner since China-born Gao Xingjian won in 2000. There has also been a long gap for Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, home to acclaimed authors Amos Oz of Israel and the Syrian poet Adonis.
The academy will announce the winner of the 10 million kronor (Dh5.4m) Nobel Prize in literature today.
Mr Englund's predecessor, Horace Engdahl, sparked outrage in US literature circles three years ago when he dismissed American writers as "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture".
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
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