In News:

• Maryse Conde Guadeloupe author wins alternative Nobel Literature Prize. Ms. Conde works describes the ravages of colonialism and postcolonial chaos in a language which is both precise and overwhelming.

About:

• The New Academy Prize in Literature was formed in protest to denounce what its founders called the “bias, arrogance and sexism” of the venerable Swedish Academy, which selects Nobel laureates. The New Academy, a self-organized group of 100 or so volunteers, has sprouted up in the last six months in hopes of providing an alternative global literature prize this year
• What started as a group of concerned Swedish actors, singers, journalists, and writers has reached readers all around the world. The group got together in May, after the disgraced academy announced it would postpone the prize announcement until 2019. It started by inviting every librarian in Sweden to nominate authors for the prize. Then the New Academy asked the public to vote on the resulting 47 nominees. More than 32,000 responses came in.