Benefit of International Literary Prizes

It's comforting to know that, despite the almost constant welter of controversy that surrounds the Nobel Prize for Literature, it continues to expose English-language readers to a world of writers they might not have otherwise encountered.

Controversy? Well, consider the ongoing discontent over who hasn't been awarded the world's most prestigious literary prize, including the concerted groaning by an entitled sector of American letters about the lack of U.S. laureates since Toni Morrison in 1993, while some members of the Swedish Academy make intemperate comments condemning the quality of American writing.

Still, without the Nobel, relatively few mainstream English readers would have encountered the works of Jose Saramago or Kenzaburo Oe. SOURCE