The Nobel Prize for Literature is not without controversy. No, we're not talking about the numerous times when obscure Swedish writers triumphed over more established and influential authors. That's just par for the course. We're talking about the events of 2018, when there is no Nobel Prize in Literature... at all.

That's not true, you say. Take a look at the Nobel Literature winners, and here is the 2018 winner, Olga Tokarczuk. Huh?

Actually, the 2018 prize was awarded retroactively a year later. They couldn't award it on time because a bunch of members of the Nobel committee resigned. One member was accused of leaking winners to her friends so they could clean up on the (lucrative?) Nobel gambling market. Her husband was accused of sexual harassment... and later went to jail for rape. This sent the committee into upheaval, members resigned in protest, and there was not enough for a quorum to select a winner. The King of Sweden had to intervene.

It has all settled down since then, with the 2020 prize going to Louise Gluck, making her the second American Jewish poet to win the award in the past five years. She joined Bob Dylan, naturally.

Talk about controversy...