Five people outside the Academy are to participate in appointing Nobel laureates

Five external persons should have been asked if they want to nominate the 2019 and 2020 Nobel laureates in literature, together with five selected members of the Swedish Academy, the Swedish Academy confirms in a press release.

It is the authors Gun-Britt Sundström and Kristoffer Leandoer, and the literary critics Rebecka Kärde and Mikaela Blomqvist as well as the translator Henrik Petersen.

Lars Heinkensten, president of the Nobel Foundation, writes in a statement that the five outsiders' entry into the Nobel Prize work is a step in the right direction to restore the Swedish Academy's confidence.

"The election of many new, independent members means that a distance is created for the events of the past year," he writes.

He also writes that a prerequisite for the Swedish Academy to receive green light to be awarded the 2018 and 2019 Nobel Prizes in literature in the future is that the Academy's activities are reformed and that "it is clearly on the way to regaining its credibility".

Rebecka Kärde, poet and literary critic, is one of the five outsiders who have been offered the opportunity to become an external expert in the new Nobel Committee.

- I don't really know that much. I haven't met Anders Olsson yet so I'm waiting for information. But what I understand is that it's about reading through the nominees for the award and discussing it. But I do not know exactly how the work will go, we will see. In a few months we will decide how to work, she says.

Kristoffer Leandoer, author, will also be a member of the committee.

- I thought it was a little too good to be true. It has been very sad that the Nobel Prize is not awarded this year. Everyone I know who works with literature has been sad. It is fun to be involved and save this, says Kristoffer Leandoer to the Culture News.

How long will you serve on the Nobel Committee?

- I have been told that I should do this now and I have accepted it. No one knows how long it will be.

The Nobel Foundation has previously made demands on the Swedish Academy for next year's Nobel Prize in literature. It has been about creating an independent committee to appoint the award winner. It would consist of new members who were not involved in the crisis that ravaged the institution during the year.

The Swedish Academy's permanent secretary Anders Olsson was initially skeptical of the requirement for an independent committee, but later confirmed to TT that a compromise could be possible:

- I think everyone agrees that we need a larger Nobel Committee where there is also room for external experts. Maybe also that there is a balance, I can imagine that it is 50 percent members and 50 percent who are external, he has told TT.

The members of the Academy who will be included in the work are Horace Engdahl, Per Wästberg, Anders Olsson, Jesper Svenbro and Kristina Lugn.