Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Nobel Prize Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

From the Nobel Prize Website:

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach. 

Abdulrazak Gurnah

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 was awarded to Abdulrazak Gurnah "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents."

Abdulrazak Gurnah being awarded this prize was not a huge surprise. Many said he was the leading candidate. I will say it is nice to wake up to a Nobel Prize winner that is fairly mainstream. Gurnah's books have been nominated for major prizes like the Booker, so most library systems own his books. 

Here is an article about Gurnah and his books from PW.

But this is a post in my series about using awards lists as a RA tool, and I am sure some of you are asking why I posted this under that series when this is an award without a long list?

Great question. Thanks for asking. 

It is because the list of past winners is a wonderful resource to dig into, especially for world literature. 

You could make an excellent display of past winners and readalikes for them. You can also make online lists where you highlight each author, their work, and other things to try. 

And because the list is international, you can use it outside of the time when the prize is awarded. Make lists and displays that focus on the author's country of origin and use it as a springboard to offer more reading options.