The letter arrived late, Vietnam missed the opportunity to nominate the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature

According to information on Vanvn.vn, the mouthpiece of the Vietnam Writers’ Association, on February 17, the association’s president and poet Nguyen Quang Thieu received a letter from the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Institute asking him for a nomination. Vietnamese authors for the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature.

In a letter sent from Stockholm (Sweden) in December 2021, Mr. Anders Olsson, President of the Swedish Institute, wrote:

“Dear Mr. President of Vietnam Writers Association.

On behalf of the Swedish Institute, we are honored to invite you to nominate a Vietnamese candidate for the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature. We would love to receive a statement on the reasons for the nomination, although not necessarily have. When considering applicants, please consider issues of genre, gender and geography.

To be considered by the Committee, your proposal needs to be sent to the Nobel Committee in preparation for discussion on the Prize by January 31, 2022. The Nobel Committee will consider all nominations, with the nomination signed by the candidate himself, and must be kept completely confidential by both the nominee and the candidate.

Nominations should be sent to the Swedish Institute’s Nobel Committee. Nominations submitted via email will not be accepted. Only nominations enclosed in envelopes are accepted, parcels are not accepted“.

This is the first time the Vietnam Writers Association has received an invitation to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize from the Nobel Committee, but when the letter reached poet Nguyen Quang Thieu, the deadline for submitting nominations had passed more than 2 weeks. Vietnam has missed the opportunity to participate in the consideration of the Nobel Prize for Literature.