Nobel Prize secretary Horace Engdahl told the AP that Europe still rules when it comes to great literature: the U.S. is "too isolated, too insular." We also don't "participate in the big dialogue of literature." (He did not elaborate as to what those important big dialogues were.) Meanwhile, will reclusive Catcher In the Rye author J.D. Salinger receive the Nobel Prize for Lit? Writes a tipster, "I work for PEN in Britain, and there is a rumour here that [the above comments are] an attempt to cover up J.D. Salinger's being on the shortlist for this year's Nobel." [AP via Breitbart]

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