The Nobel Prize is considered by many to be the gold standard of literary awards. Every year since 1901, the Swedish foundation has handed out awards to individuals who have made outstanding achievements in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and peace. The winners receive a diploma, medal, a cash prize, and bragging rights for, basically, ever. But this year, it doesn't sound like those bragging rights will be going to an American. One of the foundation's electing committee members has made several discouraging remarks about American authors.  

 Horace Engdahl, secretary of the Swedish Academy, gave an interview to the AP last week saying, "Europe is still the center of the literary world." Afterwards, he added that American writers were "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture. …The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining."
  These comments have caused the obvious backlash and disapproval of the American literary world.  Harold Augenbraum, director of the National Book Foundation in the US, glibly offered to send Engdahl a reading list. In a New York Times article published Saturday (10/4), Charles McGrath writes: 
"the Nobel selection process is hardly the lofty and purely literary exercise - the 'big dialogue' - that Mr. Engdahl suggests, and it never has been. Whatever else the prize may be, it is not a guarantee of literary excellence. Critics are always pointing out that the list of writers who never won, which includes Tolstoy, Proust, Borges, Joyce, Nabokov and Auden, is far more impressive than the roster of those who did."
 
The next day, Engdahl amended his comments by making a statement to the UK paper, the Guardian: 
There he said that a misunderstanding had occurred and that the Swedish Academy strictly adhered to Alfred Nobel's wish "that in awarding the prize no consideration whatsoever be given to the nationality of the candidates". He added: "It is of no importance, when we judge American candidates, how any of us views American literature as a whole in comparison with other literatures. The Nobel prize is not a contest between nations but an award to individual authors. It is essential to remember that when national feelings run high." He maintained that there was "no reason for any particular author to get upset by my observations."

This comment suggests that despite his out and out bashing of American literature, there is no reason to believe the prize won't go to an American. There are a few American authors who many presumed would be on the shortlist of this year's Nobel Prize candidates. These include Thomas Pynchon, Phillip Roth, and Joyce Carol Oates. But Times author McGrath makes a good point when he suggests that Americans bet on the prize going to an author "whom nobody in this country has ever heard of and who is out of print here or, ideally, has never been published at all."
In any case, this year's Nobel winner will be announced on Thursday. The last American to claim the prize was Toni Morrison in 1993.

This week author Neil Gaiman released The Graveyard Book. Fans who flocked to see Gaiman at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. were treated to a sneak peek of this new book. With days before it hit stores, Gaiman read from The Graveyard Book and talked about how he found the idea for this book--and all his books.

"There's something in the swirl of existence when you stop and say 'That's a story.'" he said.

For The Graveyard Book, this moment of inspiration came for Gaiman about 23 years ago. He and his family had lived in a tall skinny house in England that had no yard for his young son to play in. So every day, Gaiman would carry his little son and a tricycle down long flights of stairs to the graveyard next door. His son would ride among the graves as Gaiman would let his imagination run wild. And this where he landed upon the idea to set a story in a graveyard where an orphan would learn secrets from the dead.

What seemed like an instant success, actually developed over years as Gaiman stopped and started the project many times.

"Every five or six years, I'd write a page of The Graveyard Book, look at it and think 'That's rubbish.'" Gaiman recalled.

Lucky for fans, Gaiman picked up his idea again six years ago and was determined to finish it.

"I decided I wasn't getting any better and decided it was time," he said.  

So now that The Graveyard Book is done and on bookstore shelves, Gaiman is touring across the country to promote it. Instead of the usual readings and signings, Gaiman has decided to take a different tact. Starting with chapter 1, on each stop of the tour Gaiman will be reading a complete chapter, city by city, until he has read the complete book aloud to fans. 

Maybe you can catch Neil Gaiman in your neighborhood. If not, you can settle with The Graveyard Book and read one very ghoulish story.  

The editors at READ would like to welcome poet Tiphanie Yanique. Inside the current issue Caribbean Stories, READ featured an article about the famous Caribbean poets: Juan Francisco Manzano, Kamau Brathwaite, and Derek Walcott. Tiphanie continues in the tradition of these great poets by capturing life on the islands, with its beautiful landscapes and rocky history. In honor of our Caribbean Stories issue, Tiphanie will be reading her poem "Autobiography".

 

 Tiphanie originally hails from the island of St. Thomas. Nowadays, you'll find her writing stories and poetry about island life, along with teaching creative writing and Caribbean literature at Drew University in New Jersey.

Many thanks, Tiphanie, for lending us your beautiful voice!

 

In issue 2 of READ, our theme was Caribbean Stories. At the end of our Readers' Theater play, Before We Were Free, we asked you to send us your thoughts on freedom. Did you think the price the de la Torre family paid for freedom was worth it? Here are two responses from Mrs. Heinzel's 6th grade class in Creston, Iowa.

Darian Huff, Age 11
This story changed the way I think about freedom a lot, because it made me think about how much I appreciate it. I loved the way the de laTorre family stood up for their freedom. They stood up for what they thought was right, even though it ended up getting them hurt or having to move. This play made me appreciate our freedoms and realize how lucky we are.

Alex Fargo, Age 11
This story changed the way I think about freedom, because now I know how it can be in other countries that don't have the type of government we have. Now, I feel like I have been taking my freedom for granted. I'm lucky to be in a country where people even have a chance at becoming a citizen. There's an old saying that "things will get worse before they get better" and I think that the de la Torre family took a chance that things would get better, and it was worth it.

Send us your own thoughts about Before We Were Free... or about freedom in general. Email to word@weeklyreader.com. Put "Freedom" in the subject line. Or click on the comments section below.