New Academy Prize in Literature

Following an open invitation to the world, calling for public votes for 47 candidates nominated by Swedish librarians, the New Academy announced that the four finalists for the prize were Maryse Condé, Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami, and Kim Thúy.{{cite web|url=https://www.dennyaakademien.com/nominated|title=The finalists: The New Academy Prize in Literature 2018|website=Den Nya Akademien (The New Academy)|access-date=September 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022190420/https://www.dennyaakademien.com/nominated|archive-date=October 22, 2018|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/30/neil-gaiman-haruki-murakami-alternative-nobel-literature-prize|title=Neil Gaiman and Haruki Murakami up for alternative Nobel literature prize|first=Alison|last=Flood|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 August 2018}} There were 12 nominees each from Sweden and the United States, five from United Kingdom, three each from France and Canada, and two each from Italy and Nigeria.

On 17 September 2018, Murakami requested that his nomination be withdrawn, saying he wanted to "concentrate on writing, away from media attention."{{cite news|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/09/16/national/japans-haruki-murakami-withdraws-consideration-alternative-nobel-award/|title=Japan's Haruki Murakami withdraws from consideration for alternative Nobel award|work=The Japan Times|date=September 16, 2018|access-date=September 18, 2018}}

The New Academy Prize in Literature was awarded to Maryse Condé.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/12/books/maryse-conde-alternative-lobel-literature.html|title=Maryse Condé Wins an Alternative to the Literature Nobel in a Scandal-Plagued Year|website= nytimes.com|first= Annalisa |last=Quinn|date= October 12, 2018|access-date=October 12, 2018}} The jury said in its citation: {{block quote|"Maryse Condé is a grand storyteller. Her authorship belongs to world literature. In her work, she describes the ravages of colonialism and the postcolonial chaos in a language which is both precise and overwhelming. The magic the dream and the terror is as also love constantly present. Fiction and reality overlap each other and people live as much in an imagined world with long and complicated traditions as the ongoing present. Respectfully and with humour she narrates the postcolonial insanity disruption and abuse but also human solidarity and warmth The dead live in her stories closely to the living in a multitudinous world where gender race and class are constantly turned over in new constellations."{{cite web|url=https://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/the-new-academy/pressreleases/maryse-conde-accepted-the-new-academy-prize-in-literature-of-sek-320-000-in-stockholm-2811878 |title=Maryse Condé accepted The New Academy Prize in Literature of SEK 320 000 in Stockholm |publisher=The New Academy |date=December 9, 2018 |access-date= July 6, 2022 }}}}

Maryse Condé received the prize on 10 December 2018 at a ceremony at Berns salonger in Stockholm. The prize sum, 320 000 Swedish crowns, was created through crowdfunding and sponsorship.

Condé, a writer from Guadeloupe, was particularly noted for her novels Segu (1984), Tree of Life: A Novel of the Caribbean (1987) and Windward Heights (1995). When Condé died in 2024, The Guardian obituary of her noted that she had considered this award an especially important achievement and that she had dedicated the prize to all the people of Guadeloupe, saying: "We are such a small country, only mentioned when there are hurricanes or earthquakes and things like that. Now we are so happy to be recognised for something else."{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/02/maryse-conde-guadelopean-grand-storyteller-dies-aged-90|title=Maryse Condé, Guadeloupean 'grand storyteller' dies aged 90|first=Sian|last=Cain|newspaper=The Guardian|date= April 2, 2024}}

The establishment of the prize caused several negative reactions in Swedish media, some criticizing the New Academy's intention to award "morally good literature" and cultural journalist Göran Sommardal called the prize "pathetic".{{cite web|url=https://www.svt.se/kultur/kritik-mot-nya-akademiens-nobelpris |title=Kritik mot Nya Akademiens litteraturpris |date= July 16, 2018 |publisher=SVT Nyheter |lang=Swedish |access-date= July 6, 2022}} Swedish author Ulf Lundell, himself one of the 47 nominees for the prize, said he thought that "no author of any self-preservation will accept it". Internationally, reactions were more positive, Alison Flood wrote in The Guardian: "Perhaps the most striking detail of all is found not in the names, but the fine print. The New Academy is enforcing a gender quota on the shortlist stage, stipulating that it comprises two men and two women. How different this is to the Nobel, which counts among its 114 winners just 14 women", and also praised the nomination process of public votes: "How open. How inclusive."{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/jul/12/the-alternative-nobel-vote-now-for-a-surprising-new-literature-prize |title=The Alternative Nobel: vote opens for a surprising new literature prize |author=Flood, Alison |date= July 12, 2018 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=July 6, 2022}}

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20181014212741/https://www.dennyaakademien.com/ The New Academy]

Category:2018 establishments in Sweden

Category:Awards established in 2018

Category:Fiction awards

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