Facts about Nobel Prize in Literature Criteria

1. 06

   A writer must be alive at the time of nomination to be considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature, as posthumous awards are not permitted.

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2. 05

   Authors cannot nominate themselves, and self-nominations are explicitly excluded under the Nobel Prize in Literature eligibility criteria.

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3. 04

   Nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature are kept secret for 50 years, meaning the public cannot know who was considered for a given year's prize until decades later.

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4. 03

   Sweden's Swedish Academy, founded in 1786, is solely responsible for selecting Nobel Prize in Literature laureates from nominations submitted by qualified literary institutions and scholars worldwide.

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5. 02

   Alfred Nobel's will specified that the literature prize should go to the person who produced 'the most outstanding work in an ideal direction,' a phrase that has been interpreted differently across generations.

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6. 01

   The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded for an author's overall body of work rather than for a single book or piece of writing.

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