Behind the scenes of the Nobel Prize in Literature

my name is ellen matson i'm a writer a novelist i'm a member of the swedish academy and also of the nobel committee and i will try to explain a little to you about the process how we choose a nobel laureate [Music] there is a system for the nomination process otherwise it would be overwhelming so we have people all over the world uh who are entitled to nominate and these are scholars critics spokespersons for literary organizations other academies previous laureates can nominate and of course the members of the swedish academy so we get a lot of names from all over the world theoretically anyone can be nominated yes anyone who writes excellent outstanding literature but there is no other demand just quality in the work it's all about quality literary quality of course um uh you the the winner needs to be someone who writes excellent literature uh someone who where you feel when you read that there's some kind of a power a development that lasts through books all the books but the world is full of very good excellent writers and that you need something more uh to be a laureate and it's very difficult to to explain what that is it's something you're born with i think uh the romantics would call it um a divine spark for me it's um it's a voice that i hear in the writing uh that i find with in this particular writer's work and nowhere else and it's very difficult to explain what it is but i always know when i find it so it's something you're born with a talent that gives that extra dimension to to that particular writer's work there's no age limit no uh but it takes quite a lot of time to be a good writer sometimes it takes your whole life to be a really good excellent writer so it follows that most laureates are not young um i would say most writers are my age maybe a little younger and often a little older it is possible to find a laureate who is perhaps 30 or 40 but it's highly unlikely because as i say you need time to develop it's it's a lifetime's process to reach that level of excellency no actually absolutely not if you don't mean the kind of personality that shows itself in the work but we never look at a person's personal life that is totally irrelevant what we look for is always just excellent literature it's literary merit that's the only thing that counts well my favorite thing is is that i get the chance to read all these wonderful writers and to read in depth read so extensively uh usually when when i i've worked with many committees and and juries for literature and usually you you read a couple of books or perhaps just the latest book but here we read all the books by all the candidates you read and maybe you you read them several times to really really get to know the candidates and so it's a it's a vertical reading and and sometimes that means um having to work with yourself to overcome some kind of resistance you feel maybe you feel that you you're not really you don't understand this right perhaps you don't even like this writer but my job is to broaden my mind and try to read until i reach a point where i understand this particular writer so it's it's a lot of work but it's a very enjoyable work and i feel also that it's it's a very good thing for my my brain to to to overcome resistance resistance and uh sometimes you get a little lazy uh as you grow older you you like to read your favorite uh writers and you sort of stick with them but here i'm constantly challenged by new authors and that is a great joy and of course i also like the the process of discussing these writers with my fellow readers in the committee and in the academy as a whole it's a very simple thing when we decide when a decision is made the permanent secretary goes out to make a phone call so then the telephoning starts and sometimes i think it's a little bit difficult to track down the laureate and maybe it's not the right time of day or night for for that actual person in whatever part of the world we're talking about but it's it's by telephone well you can you can win a nobel prize if you if you spend your life reading writing wonderful literature and really dedicate your life to writing and become a really really good writer but you also have to have this particular talent and that is something i you can develop it but you cannot create it within yourself if you're not born with it i'm quite certain of this so it's a combination of hard work and talent but the hard work part is not unimportant it takes a lot of work and dedication to be a really really good writer the announcement will take place on 7th of october so anyone who is interested in literature watch out for that particular date [Music] you

Channel: Nobel Prize

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Length: 7min 59sec (479 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021