Nobel literature prize 'no earlier than October 12'

This year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for literature will not be announced until October 12 at the earliest, Swedish Academy officials said today.

The secretive academy, which selects the winner of the prestigious prize, has a tradition of keeping prize-followers in limbo by never revealing the date of the announcement until a few days before it is made.

Because the 220-year-old academy has yet to reveal its announcement date, it cannot be made before October 12, said Carola Hermelin, an assistant director at the academy’s Nobel Library.

However, they could also wait for a later Thursday in October, going against its tradition of typically announcing the prize on either the first or second Thursday of October.

The change in procedure was made to be more accommodating towards journalists who cover the prize, she said.

“We want to give people more time to prepare,” she said. “It’s good especially for foreign journalists who come here.”

There is no shortlist of possible winners, but buzz has centred on Syrian poet Adonis, whose real name is Ali Ahmad Said, and controversial Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk (pictured).

The Swedish Academy won’t say whom it has considered, much less who was nominated.

This has not stopped pundits and publications and websites from their own guesses.

Other contenders, at least according to the media and betting websites, include Americans Joyce Oates and Philip Roth and Swedish poet Thomas Transtromer.

British playwright and poet Harold Pinter, whose juxtaposition of the brutal and the banal resulted in an adjective that bears his name, won last year’s Nobel Prize for literature.

The Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine was announced yesterday, while the physics prize was set to be announced later today.

The prizes in chemistry, economics and peace will be announced this week and next.