This year has been one of unexpected outcomes in arts prizes. This month, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”, making him the first musician to win the prestigious award to the surprise of many in the literary world.
And this week, Paul Beatty was announced the winner of the Man Booker Prize, making him the first American writer to win the prize three years after eligibility rules were changed to include writers of any nationality writing in the English language and being published in the United Kingdom. Not many people expected that his satirical novel, The Sellout, which had a small release when it was first published in America, to get such recognition.
But what does this tell us about the nature of prizes? Are they becoming more inclusive and diverse? Are they becoming more globalised? The question now is: when will the Pulitzer Prizes be open to non-Americans?