When Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio was named this year’s Nobel Laureate in Literature yesterday, I had to go to Wikipedia to even find out who he is. Is that evidence that the Nobel Prize increasingly goes to writers less prominent on the world’s literary stage? Or just proof of my own insularity? (I was pulling, as I always do, for either Philip Roth or Mario Vargas Llosa — who’s Peruvian and pretty dang cosmopolitan, I might add.)
Here’s some thoughts on the whole thing by my friend Kyle Semmel, who is far from insular when it comes to international lit (he’s a translator himself). He’s more riled about it than I am, and it’s sure fun to watch him get worked up. Check it out!
— Art Taylor
Add to Facebook: 