The Neustadt International Prize for Literature has been given out biennially since 1970 and is sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and World Literature Today. Similarly to the Nobel Prize, it honors "outstanding achievement in poetry, fiction, or drama", and "it may serve to crown a lifetime’s achievement or to direct attention to an important body of work that is still developing." The prize has had so much overlap with the Nobel Prize that it has come to be known among lovers of world literature as the "American Nobel". As of 2020, 32 Laureates, Finalists, and Jurors have won the Nobel Prize. Recent convergences include: 1988 Finalist Peter Handke (Nobel 2019), 2012 Finalist Bob Dylan (Nobel 2016), and 1994 Finalist Svetlana Alexievich (Nobel 2015).
2020- Ismail Kadare
2018- Edwidge Danticat
2016- Dubravka Ugresic
2014- Mia Couto
2012- Rohinton Mistry
2006- Claribel Alegría
2004- Adam Zagajewski
2002- Álvaro Mutis
2000- David Malouf
1998- Nuruddin Farah
1996- Assia Djebar
1994- Kamau Brathwaite
1992- João Cabral de Melo Neto
1990- Tomas Transtromer
1988- Raja Rao
1986- Max Frisch
1984- Paavo Haavikko
1982- Octavio Paz
1980- Josef Škvorecký
1978- Czeslaw Milosz
1976- Elizabeth Bishop
1974- Francis Ponge
1972- Gabriel García Márquez
1970- Giuseppe Ungaretti