Romanian writer Mircea Cartarescu (in picture) is among the favorites for the Nobel prize for literature this year, and a new entry in the top, based on the rankings at booking houses in the UK, according to UK media. (Read more about Mircea Cartarescu in our Famous Romanians article).

Syrian poet Adonis, who won the Goethe award earlier this year, is the frontrunner for the Nobel literature prize which will be awarded next month. 81-year old Adonis has a quota of 4/1 at the Ladbrokes booking house. Tomas Tranströmer was the favorite last year at the same booking house, but the actual award went to Mario Vargas Llosa.

Romanian writer Cartarescu has 21/1 odds of winning, according to the booking house, ranking 11th.

The list of proposals for the Nobel prize are not made public and the nominees are not even announced whether they will receive the awards. The annual nomination lists are made public 50 years after the winners have been chosen.

Other Romanians who have received the Nobel prize in the past are George Emil Palade, who got the Nobel award for medicine in 1974, Ioan Moraru, in 1985- the peace prize, Elie Wiesel – also the peace prize in 1986 and Herta Muller, with the Nobel literature prize in 2009.

The Nobel prizes will start on October 3, but the date for announcing the Literature prize is yet to be publicized. Nobel prizes have been awarded since 1901, after the death of Swedish engineer Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and based on his testament.

Original article on The Guardian here.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo by Cosmin Bumbut; http://www.bumbutz.ro)