The Nobel literary committee today infuriated the bookies, delighted the bookish and thumbed its nose, again, at the American book industry. The 2008 Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a half-British French novelist and philosopher, who lives in America and champions the "lost" wisdom of non-Western cultures.

From the Guardian: The Wole Soyinka is a pan-African prize for literature designed "to celebrate excellence in all its cerebral grace, its liberating qualities, the honour and recognition it brings to a myriad of people, of diverse cultures and languages" and to operate as "the African Nobel prize for literature". Indeed, it's named after the first sub-Saharan African to win the Nobel prize proper...

French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in literature today for his poetic adventure and "sensual ecstasy."

Not satisfied with handing out the Nobel Prize in literature Peter Englund (soon to be press secretary of the Nobel-awarding Swedish Academy) has announced on his weblog that he is handing out a 'Pol Pot Prize'.

In 'Korea will soon win Nobel Prize' in The Korea Herald Yang Sung-jin reports that: "Nobel Prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio said he expects a Korean writer to win the prestigious literature award in the near future."

(With the news that this year's Nobel prize went to Jean-Marie Le Clezio, an author completely unrepresented in the U.S. by large publishers, I was curious to see what kind of effect this would have on one of the small publishers that do publish his work Stateside. What would a small press do to make the most of its virtual monopoly on the 2008 Nobel laureate? And how would it react to Simon &...

Sam Jordison: The 'African Nobel' has gone to a fantasy novel for teenagers. Shame it could never win a Booker

Publishers Weekly has an update on how Le Clezio's doing in the U.S., post-Nobel. Happily, small presses that have hung with him are the beneficiaries thus far: Thus far, three small presses have benefitted from last month's news that French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio won the Nobel Prize in Literature. While David Godine, University of Nebraska Press and Curbstone Press all upped or rus...

The 68 year old French winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, J.M. de Clezio, gave an impassioned speech about the information age as his Nobel speech. de Clezio believes that the technological revolution has created great inequities around the world, in that it divides people into those who have easy access to book and information and those who don't. He called on publishers to help put b...

Four Nobel Prize-winners for literature have joined seven other distinguished writers in issuing a statement of support for the Czech-born author Milan Kundera, who has been accused of informing for the Communist secret police when he was a student.