The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Couldn't find a thread on the Neustadt Prize and was wondering if it's okay to make one? I am sure people would be interested given the popularity of the MBI and BTBA.

Taken from the Wikipedia: "The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, World Literature Today. It is considered one of the more prestigious international literary prizes ... the prize is sometimes referred to as the “American Nobel” ... Like the Nobel, it is awarded to individuals for their entire body of work, not for a single one."

So the 2020 finalists this year were announced yesterday as:

Emmanuel Carrère (France)
Jorie Graham (United States)
Jessica Hagedorn (Philippines / United States)
Eduardo Halfon (Guatemala)
Ismail Kadare (Albania)
Sahar Khalifeh (Palestine)
Abdellatif Laâbi (Morocco)
Lee Maracle (Canada)
Hoa Nguyen (Vietnam / United States)

Yes, good idea. Thanks. Also surprised there wasn't a thread already.

List of previous winners, on Wikipedia

It's a pretty good record as a truly international prize, compared with the Nobel.

Unfortunately I have not read any of the nominated writers, and the only one I've even been close to reading is Kadare.

Thanks for posting it, J.

I had not heard of this prize. I am hoping for Jorie Graham for personal reasons.

Kadare is the only one of those that I have read too.

These are the previous winners (according to Wikipedia):
1970 Giuseppe Ungaretti
1972 Gabriel García Márquez
1974 Francis Ponge
1976 Elizabeth Bishop
1978 Czesław Miłosz
1980 Josef Škvorecký
1982 Octavio Paz
1984 Paavo Haavikko
1986 Max Frisch
1988 Raja Rao
1990 Tomas Tranströmer
1992 João Cabral de Melo Neto
1994 Edward Kamau Brathwaite
1996 Assia Djebar
1998 Nuruddin Farah
2000 David Malouf
2002 Álvaro Mutis
2004 Adam Zagajewski
2006 Claribel Alegría
2008 Patricia Grace
2010 Duo Duo
2012 Rohinton Mistry
2014 Mia Couto
2016 Dubravka Ugrešić
2018 Edwidge Danticat

and the childrens' literature winners
2003 Mildred D. Taylor
2005 Brian Doyle
2007 Katherine Paterson
2009 Vera B. Williams
2011 Virginia Euwer Wolff
2013 Naomi Shihab Nye
2015 Meshack Asare
2017 Marilyn Nelson
2019 Margarita Engle

The prize themselves said in their announcement this year that it has a history as a lead-up to the Nobel Prize in Literature, by which I assume they mean people win this and later get a Nobel.

Seemed true in early years - Gabriel García Márquez, Czesław Miłosz and Octavio Paz from first 7 winners all later won the Nobel. But less so since - Tomas Tranströmer yes but anyone else?

Not that later winning Nobel is a key criteria - just odd prize itself mentioned it. Several of the winners I do know - Alvaro Mutis and Dubravka Ugrešić are impressive and it is as has been said a more genuinely international prize that the Nobel.

I think some of you would enjoy Halfon. I am looking forward to more translation from him in the future.

Ismail Kadare wins the 2020 Neustadt Prize!

https://lithub.com/albanian-author-is...

Blue wrote: "Ismail Kadare wins the 2020 Neustadt Prize!

https://lithub.com/albanian-author-is..."

I think this was the expected and proper choice. Hopefully, there won't be controversy. I have not read anything by Kadare in many years. Do you have any favorites. Also I had thought Kadare was more of a political novelist. Are there any texts you recommend that reflect any of his no political works?

Well, I read A Girl in Exile: Requiem for Linda B. last year, and that was a political book for sure. I liked it quite a bit. I've read his well-known books, and that's about it. This prize is always a reason to better-know a writer I've had interest in and not yet read enough of.

2022 finalists:

https://www.neustadtprize.org/finalis...

2022 winner: Boubacar Boris Diop

The prize lists his representative book as Murambi, The Book of Bones

Unlike the Nobel this one has featured a number of African writers in its (briefer) history, including Assia Djebar, Mia Coutu and Nuruddin Farah

I have always associated Andrés Neuman with this prize and now I have no idea why... I guess it's possible I learned about the prize around the same time I read Traveler of the Century: A Novel. Weird.

Anyone read Diop before?

I haven’t I am afraid. The recommended book looks rather harrowing - a retelling in novel form of the massacres in Rwanda.

I haven't read him either. I stayed away from the author's on the list this year because I was not overly impressed with the choices. Now that there is a winner I will check him out further, but I still think this list was a bit of a disappointment.

For a prize that has tended to focus on names that are acknowledged elsewhere as significant figures, this year it did seem to go somewhat left field.

Nice news for Jennifer Croft though

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Nice news for Jennifer Croft though"

No mention of any of his translators, names - e.g. Fiona Mc Laughlin, Alan Furness, Vera Wülfing-Leckie, El Hadji Moustapha Diop - on the announcement

https://www.neustadtprize.org/boubaca...

Indeed this statement "his Doomi Golo was the first novel to be translated from Wolof into English" is presented as if it is an achievement on his behalf rather than the translators who did it

Although his books do have the translator's names on the cover

My cynicism wants to relate his winning the prize to Croft's name association ( and the Toni Morrison's blurb) but in truth, he is well recognized for his writing on the Rwanda conflict. I thought it was the subject that won him acclaim over his literary style, but I may be wrong. I think reading him along with Gurnah and Soyinka would make a nice African parlay for later in the year.

It looks like the Neustadt Lit Fest is October 24-26 and all events are livestreamed or on zoom (as well as in person) for anyone interested. Registration appears to be free.

https://www.neustadtprize.org/events/...

The finalists for the 2024 prize were announced today:

Chris Abani (Nigeria) / Sanctificum
Angie Cruz (U.S.) / How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
Ananda Devi (Mauritius) / Eve out of Her Ruins
Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany) / The End of Days
Nona Fernández (Chile) / The Twilight Zone
Juan Felipe Herrera (U.S.) / Every Day We Get More Illegal
Maxine Hong Kingston (U.S.) / The Woman Warrior
Valeria Luiselli (Mexico) / Lost Children Archive
Shahrnush Parsipur (Iran) / Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran

Interesting list and delighted to see Ananda Devi there wearing my Les Fugitives hat.

Didn’t we discuss some of these titles years ago or does it just feel like it was years?

Yes and actually this is an author prize, like the Nobel, not a book prize. The books listed are ones the jury have suggested as “representative works” and they do tend to pick recent ones - which actually makes me think it isn’t really like the Nobel - but the prize is not for those books.

That makes sense then. Lost Children Archive was published 4 years ago!

Ananda Devi wins with Eve Out of Her Ruins translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman cited as the representative book.

Devi also won the Prix de La Langue Française this week for her body of work (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prix_...)

Nice news for Les Fugitives and Deep Vellum

Fantastic choice.

Here are the 2025 nominees:


Yuri Andrukhovych / Set Change

Elif Batuman / The Possessed

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge / A Treatise on Stars

Robert Olen Butler / Had a Good Time

Safia Elhillo / The January Children

Mathias Énard / Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants

Ibrahim Nasrallah / Time of White Horses

Yoko Tawada / The Emissary

Jesmyn Ward / Sing, Unburied, Sing


https://www.neustadtprize.org/2026-ne...

Thanks. Interesting list.

The books are - I think - representative ones that the nominating juror suggests, as the prize itself is for a body of work.

The books are - I think - representative ones that the nominating juror suggests, as the prize itself is for a body of work."

I agree with Paul about body of work. The Neustadt works like this:

A new international jury of outstanding writers is selected to decide the winner of each Neustadt Prize in odd-numbered years. The members of the jury are determined by the executive director of World Literature Today (who is the only permanent member) in consultation with the journal’s editors and the president of the University of Oklahoma. Each juror nominates one author for the prize.

So with each member of the jury nominating a candidate, one may understand the disparity we might see in candidates and also the political influence apparent. The jurors this year were:

Threa Almontaser
Maya Arad
Polina Barskova
Victoria Chang
Elisabeth Jaquette
Beena Kamlani
Shereen Malherbe
Iheoma Nwachukwu
Alejandro Puyana