Time for a woman to win Nobel Literature Prize, say pundits

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Stockholm's literary circles are abuzz with speculation about this year's Nobel Literature Prize, and while it's notoriously difficult to predict the laureate, some experts are saying it's time for a woman.

Among the women whose names are making the rounds ahead of the Swedish Academy's announcement on Thursday are Canadian short story writer Alice Munro, Canadian poet Anne Carson, and Egyptian feminist novelist Nawal el Saadawi.

Yet others say it could be time for an American to win it, with novelists Don DeLillo, Philip Roth and N. Scott Momaday, a Native American, mentioned as possible laureates.

"You can never know or guess how the Academy is thinking," Ms Lina Kalmteg, a literary critic for Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, told AFP.