How is the Nobel Prize in Literature decided?

Hi, my name is Anders Olsson and I'm the chair of the Nobel Committee in the Swedish Academy. Every year we receive about 200 nominations coming to the Academy from all the world. And then our work starts, that is in the beginning of February each year, and it was like that this year too. And then we are reducing this great quantity of writers to eight this year, and that is a shortlist, and the Academy has accepted the shortlist before summer vacation. So everyone in the Academy reads this shortlist during the summer, and out of this shortlist we pick the two laureates this year. I'm very excited about, of course, the reactions to this great event, to prizes and literature. That is something exceptional, and of course it is extremely exciting also to see how people will react to this comeback of the Nobel Prize. We do have criteria, and the criteria have changed. Now we are looking much more for the global totality. I mean, we have really, it's necessary for us to widen our perspectives more and more. Previously we had more, let's say, Eurocentric perspective on literature, and now we are looking all over the world. And also, previously it was much more male-oriented, now we have so many female writers that are really great. So the prize and the whole process with the prize has been intensified and is much more broader in scope. The most difficult thing, it is, of course, to find one candidate that everyone can, so to speak, agree on. But that is also the exciting thing, because you have really, you have to talk, you have to argue, you have to convince one another of your opinion, but you have also to listen to the others. And that is a very, very, very interesting process. My favourite part, that is, to read so much fantastic literature together with other very good readers. That is really good. I'm sorry, I cannot give you any hints whatsoever. We have strict rules of secrecy, as you know. I just have to beg you to tune in on the announcement of the prize on Thursday at one o'clock.