Controversy stalks Nobel Peace, Literature prizes

Controversy stalks the Nobel prizes for peace and literature in a way it rarely does for science.

The revamped panel at the Swedish Academy who will hand out the Nobel literature prizes Thursday for both 2018 and 2019 would relish arguments about the winners, rather than intrigue about the #MeToo scandal that forced the institution to suspend the prize last year.

And US President Donald Trump has done his part to kindle intrigue about the 2019 Peace Prize winner, by simultaneously seeming to pitch himself for the prize while also slamming the Norwegian panel that awards it.

"Controversy is a natural effect of the literature prize," says Mats Malm, the Swedish Academy's new permanent secretary, appointed to head a reformed 18-person panel after two years of convulsions at the prestigious institution.

"We want to contribute to the international discussion about literature and what it is supposed to be."
"How dare you?" she kept saying to some of the world's most powerful people, accusing them of ignoring the science behind climate change. "You are failing us." Last month, Thunberg won the Right Livelihood award, often called the "alternative Nobel."