'America's Nobel: The Neustadt International Prize for Literature
“The jurors would probably be more subject to the impact of writer’s reputation and world status if they were primarily critics or book reviewers. However, they are always writers who are discussing their peers when they deliberate, probably people they know and possibly collaborated with at some point. Thus, as “insiders” in the writing world they know so much more about who is writing and what people are writing than the reputations could convey by themselves. As such, the jurors are incredibly sophisticated judges, and they tend to see each writer within a very large context of what is happening in world literature. They may know that a particular writer is famous or his or her work is trendy at the moment, but since they know so much more about that writer than his or her fame, they are “immunized” in their decision making by their high level of knowledge about all of the writers being considered for the prize. The fact that the juries are made up of professional and highly accomplished writers shapes a lot of what happens on these juries and is probably the secret of why the Neustadt prizes traditionally have gone to such appropriate and deserving writers.”
E L Doctorow quote
Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
“The jurors would probably be more subject to the impact of writer’s reputation and world status if they were primarily critics or book reviewers. However, they are always writers who are discussing their peers when they deliberate, probably people they know and possibly collaborated with at some point. Thus, as “insiders” in the writing world they know so much more about who is writing and what people are writing than the reputations could convey by themselves. As such, the jurors are incredibly sophisticated judges, and they tend to see each writer within a very large context of what is happening in world literature. They may know that a particular writer is famous or his or her work is trendy at the moment, but since they know so much more about that writer than his or her fame, they are “immunized” in their decision making by their high level of knowledge about all of the writers being considered for the prize. The fact that the juries are made up of professional and highly accomplished writers shapes a lot of what happens on these juries and is probably the secret of why the Neustadt prizes traditionally have gone to such appropriate and deserving writers.”
E L Doctorow quote
Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
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