Every year, thousands of requests are sent out to members of literature acadamies and societies, literature and language professors, former nobel laureates, and presidents of writers' organizations for nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy receives these nominations and by May, there is a list of five names that have been approved by the committee, and one must be on this list twice before they can win. Members of the academy vote in October; the candidate who receives more than half of the votes is named the Nobel Laureate of Literature.

     This year, the names on the list include the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, Chinese writer Mo Yan, and American novelist Thomas Pynchon. Whoever wins the prize this year will receive a gold medal, a diploma bearing a citation, and a certain amount of money. The amount of money oscillates up and down from year to year; the 2012 prize money amount is about $1,100,000.

     I personally have not heard of any of the authors, novelists, or writers on the list of nominees for this years Nobel Prize in Literature, or many of the past winners. However, it should be clear to everyone that there is only one obvious choice for Nobel Laureate in Literature for 2012, J.K. Rowling. Are there any other suggestions excluding the authors of Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey?