Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee for Literature
# Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee for Literature

The Nobel Committee for Literature is the Nobel Committee responsible for evaluating the nominations and presents its recommendations to the Swedish Academy which then selects, through votation, the Nobel Prize laureates.

The committee members – usually comprised of five members – are elected for a period of three years among the Swedish Academy members with the Permanent Secretary serving as an associate member. In assessing the qualifications of candidates, the committee invites the assistance of specially appointed expert advisers which include translators, literary critics and linguists.

## Committee duties and deliberations

Every year on the month of September, the Nobel Committee sends out nomination forms to hundreds of individuals and organizations qualified to nominate. Some uninvited nominations from other literary societies, academies and individuals are also accepted. Such forms are required to be completed and submitted back on or before January 31st, the Nobel Committee's deadline for submissions.

From February to April, the Nobel Committee screens the nominations and presents a list for approval by the Swedish Academy. Immediately after the list of nominees is approved, the Committee evaluates creates a list of 25 to 20 candidates for preliminary evaluation. After the deliberations, the Committee then selects five priority candidates which they thoroughly assess specifically on their body of literary work and merits. Within June to August, each Committee member prepares their respective findings and criticisms on the candidates.

On September, the Academy members receive the Committee members' assessments on the finalists and discuss among themselves the literary merits of the different candidates' contribution. Within this month also, the Committee again sends out nomination forms for the following year's deliberations. On October, days before the announcement, the Academy selects the Nobel laureate in Literature through votation. A candidate must receive more than half of the votes cast. It rarely happens that the Academy proposes another candidate aside from the Committee's finalists, which causes distress and conflicts among the members.

## Current members

The following Swedish Academy members form the current Nobel Committee for Literature since 2022:

Committee Members :

| Seat No. | Name | Elected | Position | Profession |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 4 | Anders Olsson (b. 1949) | 2008 | committee chair | literary critic, literary historian |
| 11 | Mats Malm (b. 1964) | 2018 | associate member permanent secretary | translator, literary historian, editor |
| 12 | Per Wästberg (b. 1933) | 1997 | member | novelist, journalist, poet, essayist |
| 13 | Anne Swärd (b. 1969) | 2019 | member | novelist |
| 9 | Ellen Mattson (b. 1963) | 2019 | member | novelist, essayist |
| 14 | Steve Sem-Sandberg (b. 1958) | 2021 | member | journalist, author, translator |
