The 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize for literature will be presented on next Thursday, the Swedish Academy said yesterday, completing the schedule of this year's Nobel announcements.

The academy is not giving any hints about its selection for the award, which many consider the highest accolade for writers.

British betting firm Ladbrokes gives Italian writer Claudio Magris and Syrian poet Adonis the lowest odds for this year's prize.

The Swedish Academy is always the last of the Nobel Prize institutions to set a date for its prize announcement. The winner is always presented by permanent secretary Horace Engdahl at the academy's 18th-century offices in Stockholm's Old Town.

Engdahl sparked debate in literary circles earlier in the week by saying that the United States was too insular and ignorant to challenge Europe as the center of the literary world. His comments drew strong reactions in the US, where the head of the US National Book Foundation offered to send Engdahl a reading list of American literature.

"Of course, there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world, not the United States," Engdahl said.

The last US writer to win the award was Toni Morrison in 1993. Last year's award went to Britain's Doris Lessing.

The Nobel Prize announcements start on Monday with the award in medicine. The winners of the prizes in physics, chemistry and peace will also be presented next week, with the economics award revealed on October 13.

(Shanghai Daily/Agencies October 4, 2008)