Can Xue, Carson, Haruki... The Nobel Prize in Literature tonight: Who will the Academy choose?

[Financial News] This year's Nobel Prize in Literature laureate will be announced on the night of the 8th. With Chinese novelist Can Xue, Canadian poet Anne Carson and Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami among those being mentioned, attention is focused on women writers, writers from outside Europe and experimental literature.■ Can Xue's fantastical fiction and Carson's poetic experimentsAccording to the Nobel Foundation, the Swedish Academy is scheduled to announce the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate after 1 p.m. local time (8 p.m. Korea time) today. The Academy does not release an official list of nominees; the writers currently being mentioned are those whom the media and publishing industry believe have a chance of winning.
According to the British newspaper The Guardian on the 7th local time, Can Xue and Carson were joint favorites at Ladbrokes, each with odds of 10 to 1.
Can Xue has explored human anxiety and the unconscious through novels that blur the boundary between reality and fantasy. In The Last Lover, one of her best-known works translated into Korean, she delves into love and desire through the relationships between the characters.
Carson is a writer who has brought her research into ancient literature into her creative work, combining the forms of poetry and prose. Her best-known work, Autobiography of Red, tells in verse the story of a boy who experiences love and heartbreak, drawing on Greek mythology.
Haruki Murakami, who has built a worldwide readership with Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore, has also long been mentioned as a potential laureate. Australia's Gerald Murnane has drawn attention for writing that explores memory and inner landscapes in works including The Plains and Border Districts.
Cristina Rivera Garza of Mexico also features among the leading predictions. Rivera Garza has addressed violence and memory across fiction, poetry and nonfiction, and won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography.■ Domestic readers predict Atwood... An unexpected choice is also possibleRecent patterns among Nobel laureates have also influenced predictions focusing on women writers. From 2017 through last year, male and female writers were selected in alternating years.
With Hungary's László Krasznahorkai winning last year, some speculate that this year's prize could go to a woman writer from outside Europe. However, neither gender nor regional rotation can be considered an official selection rule.
Meanwhile, domestic readers ranked the writers differently from international betting markets. In YES24's poll tally for September 3–29, Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who wrote The Handmaid's Tale, came first with 21%. Salman Rushdie (18%) and Can Xue (16%) followed.
Betting and reader polls are difficult to compare directly because their participants and the timing of their tallies differ. Nor do they reflect the Academy's judging results. Information about nominations and judging is kept confidential for 50 years. The possibility remains that an unexpected name, like Bob Dylan in 2016, could be announced.
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