FACTBOX: List of recent Nobel literature laureates

(Reuters) - The date for the Nobel Prize for Literature has not yet been set but speculation is underway about who will win this year's award.

Britain's Doris Lessing, who won the 2007 Nobel Literature Prize was too ill to attend the award ceremony, but said that there was no higher accolade for a writer except, perhaps, "a pat on the head from the Pope."

Following is a list of the past 10 winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

2007 Doris Lessing (United Kingdom)

2006 Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)

2005 Harold Pinter (United Kingdom)

2004 Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)

2003 J.M. Coetzee (South Africa)

2002 Imre Kertesz (Hungary)