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If I had been pressed on what I knew about the Neustadt Prize before going to Oklahoma in November, I probably would've said something along the lines that it's the "American Nobel" that the prize money is substantial, that it's held at the University of Oklahoma because of World Literature Today, and that the first author ever published by Open Letter Books-Dubravka Ugresic-was this year's recipient. There's a reason the Neustadt has been labeled as the "greatest literary prize you haven't heard of," though-all of which was on display in Norman, Oklahoma, in the week before Halloween.
Founded in 1970 as the Books Abroad International Prize for Literature (it assumed its much shorter moniker in 1976), the Neustadt is awarded every other year to a poet, novelist, or playwright from anywhere in the world on the basis of "literary merit" alone. On the off years, two things happen: the jury for the next prize releases the names of their finalists and chooses a winner, and the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature-funded and administered by three Neustadt sisters, Nancy, Susan, and Kathy- is awarded and celebrated.
From the best I can tell, the "American Nobel" nickname comes from the fact that over its forty-five-year history, thirty-two of the winners, jurors, and finalists have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, including Gabriel García Márquez (winner, 1972), Czeslaw Milosz (winner, 1978), Tomas Tranströmer (winner, 1990), Mario Vargas Llosa (juror), Derek Walcott (juror), Doris Lessing (finalist), and Svetlana Alexievich (finalist).
That's a pretty fantastic list of authors, and the actual prize-a $50,000 check and a very weighty feather made of silver, housed in a handcrafted wooden box-is equally impressive. But what most got to me was the care that went into making sure this award has a deep impact on readers and students. One of the reasons behind the two-year cycle for this award-announced one year, with the festival taking place in the ensuing one-is so that students can take a class on the winning author and participate in the festival itself.
The idea of taking a "Neustadt Winner" class and being able to meet an internationally renowned author might not seem all that impressive to many of the people reading this, who live in metropolises and...