Ngg wa Thiongo top contender for Nobel Prize of Literature?

Two winners of the Nobel Prize of Literature will be announced on Thursday with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o listed as one of the possible contenders.

I am so confident that my father will win The Nobel Prize in Literature this year that the only question I have is where he will hang the medal! https://t.co/ydlO4Kbki2

— Mukoma Wa Ngugi (@MukomaWaNgugi) October 8, 2019

The Kenyan author was named alongside Maryse Condé (from Guadeloupe), Olga Tokarczuk (from Poland), Margaret Atwood and Anne Carson (Canadians) and Lyudmilla Ulitskaya (Russia).

“”We looked for a more diverse shortlist this year and were moving away from a more ‘male-oriented’ and ‘Eurocentric perspective of literature’,” the BBC quoted Academy member Anders Olsson.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to someone who has done outstanding work in an idealistic direction that adds the greatest benefit to humankind.

Winners receives a cash prize of Ksh. 93million, a medal and a diploma.

Last year, winners were not announced because the Swedish Academy suspended the Nobel Prize to make changes to its processes after it was engulfed in a sexual assault scandal.

The scandal sparked crisis in the organization that oversees the awards ceremony after what was termed as reduced public confidence.

Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of Academy member Katarina Frostenson, was sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted of rape thus delaying the Nobel Prize.

There were also allegations of conflict of interest and leaking of Nobel winners’ names.

According to Lars Heinkensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation, the Academy has made changes to its panel.

The BBCreport indicates that they have bringing in several new members since last year.

The body will be able allow its members to resign, and no longer tolerate members who have been subject to conflicts of interest or criminal investigations.

Previous winners of the Nobel Prize of Literature include Bob Dylan (2016), Alice Munro (2013), Orhan Pamuk (2006), Toni Morrison (2003) and Gabriel García Márquez (1982).