Agnes Lidbeck: The Swedish Academy is only children who have grown old

- It is really, really, I think, for writers to get the Nobel Prize this year, says Agnes Lidbeck.

It has been two years since a Nobel Laureate in literature was named. This year, two authors will be awarded the prize. Babel's Writers Panel tips which authors they believe will take home this year's Literature Prize. Several of the panelists believe that it may be Canadian Anne Carson who has written Red autobiography, Red doc> and most recently Eros the bitter sweet.

- I guess Anne Carson, says Johannes Anyuru.

Agnes Lidbeck also believes in the Canadian author. Instead, Tone Schunnesson believes in Margaret Atwood, whose book The Handmaid's Story is the basis for the hugely popular TV series The Handmaid's Tale.

- I think the Swedish Academy seems to like TV a lot, so I think Margaret Atwood.

However, Schunnesson hopes Anne Carson will take home the prize.

- I want Anne Carson. It feels like it is an authorship that so many would find fun to enjoy. So I've been hoping for her for years.

Agnes Lidbeck ideally sees that British author Hilary Mantel is awarded this year's Nobel Prize.

- If I were to choose a authorship that I think is the best I know right now, it's Hilary Mantel. I think she's unmatched in fact.

Johannes Anyuru wants the award to go to American Don DeLillo instead.

- Of those who could possibly get it, I think Don DeLillo. He writes fantastic prose.

On the other hand, the panel believes that the turmoil of the Swedish Academy over the past few years has damaged the reputation and authority of the Academy.

- The Swedish Academy has lost sovereignty. When they gave an award and said "this is fine literature" it became fine literature. They were sovereign and they lost it, says Johannes Anyuru.

- The problem with losing sovereignty is that it cannot be recovered. I don't know what to do to get it back.

Tone Schunesson thinks that the mystery surrounding the price is somewhat lost.

- I had never in my life thought of the Swedish Academy before this happened, so my only experience of the Academy is Horace Engdahl, Katarina Frostenson and Jean-Claude Arnault. It was better before I knew anything, then I also thought the price was fun.

The panel sees different solutions to how the Academy should again be seen as legitimate. Johannes Anyruru believes that the key lies in putting literature into focus.

- What they could do is find someone who nobody knows but who is fantastic, which we can all read and think is fantastic literature. They should work on highlighting the literature.

Instead, Agnes Lidbeck believes that the rules for the Nobel Prize should be restructured so that only deceased authors can be awarded the prize.

- I think you should do everything posthumously. If you say that "we give the finest prize in the world to a literature that we believe can live on and that we believe can touch people" then the giant would receive it ten to fifteen years after I was dead, she says.

See the panel in Babel, Sunday, October 6 at. 20.00 in SVT2.