The &quot;Swedish Academy&quot; who awards these prices are considered somewhat of a joke here in Sweden. Almost as much as we consider the Norwegian Nobel Committee a joke - remember the embarassingly prematurely awarded Obama nobel peace prize - basically only awarded because the Norwegians wanted to frolick with celebs.<p>They have a very elitist stance - if an author gets popular, no matter how &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot; he or she is, the prize seemingly cannot be awarded to them.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.today.com&#x2F;id&#x2F;15210453&#x2F;ns&#x2F;today-today_books&#x2F;t&#x2F;nobel-prize-literature-goes-who&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.today.com&#x2F;id&#x2F;15210453&#x2F;ns&#x2F;today-today_books&#x2F;t&#x2F;nobe...</a><p>&quot;A political bias may be hard to prove but there is no doubt the academy favors lesser-known writers to international best sellers. Few outside literary circles had heard of China’s Gao Xingjian, Poland’s Wislawa Szymborska or Kenzaburo Oe of Japan.<p>Gert Fylking, a Swedish radio journalist taunted the academy for a decade by showing up at the award announcement and yelling &#x27;finally&#x27; when Engdahl read the winner’s name. After being barred from entering one year, he showed up the next in disguise.<p>&#x27;The point is that 99 percent of the time, the writer who wins the Nobel Prize is completely unknown to the big masses,&#x27; Fylking said.&quot;