‘The Nobel Prize is run by a self-perpetuated committee. They vote for themselves and get the world's publishing industry to jump to their tune.’ - Doris Lessing

Throughout the year, many different literary awards are handed out to various writers from around the world.

‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’ by Marlon James became the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. 

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".

The winner of the German Book prize is ‘Die Erfindung der Roten Armee Fraktion durch einen manisch-depressiven Teenager im Sommer 1969’ by Frank Witzel, whose work “is, in the best sense, a boundless novelistic construct”.

These and other literary prizes, of various sizes, are distributed throughout the year, allowing authors and publisher to celebrate, even if they only make the long-list. It seems to be a tricky task, distinguishing the one and only story to bear the highest title of ‘the best’ but, somehow, the selecting committees manage to fulfil their duty.

It is always, firstly, the author and, secondly, the story being judged and analysed. Although quite often the work bears the title, the person who wrote it is the first to be scrutinised and approved. Just as a reader chooses a book by the cover and summary, the committee can rely on the impressions and style of the author. Further, the story is taken in and, in case of success, brought to the top of the international literary scene, a sudden addition to the world’s literary heritage.

But can we really say the judgement of the jury is truly objective and universal, in line with the responsibility they claim to possess? The majority of the prizes are the trendsetters of publishing and literary world, shaping tastes and the monetary success of the book. Being a nominee for one of them can raise sales of the book itsef and, thereby, profits of publishers, as well as attract people’s attention to the names and the works, including those written before the book currently nominated.  But is this all these literary trendsetters do?

The Nobel Prize in literature, for instance, has been criticized for its strictly exclusive and political approach to choosing the winner. Neutrality in world affairs is one of the unspoken qualities of the award-winning work.

Championing the writers is a challenge and we, the reading audience of the world, tend to rely on those people who do it, trusting their judgements and tastes.

With all this in mind, can we really say that these prizes are awarded in an objective way? In a way that is truly indicative of the best writer, or the most influential work when prizes have their own political agendas and biases?

NOTE:

The digest of 50 year-old history of awarded Booker Prize books you can find here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/11154948/winners-list.html

Editor's Note: Not all literary prizes are serious.