Ivar Ivask; Author, Critic, Founder of Neustadt Prize

Ivar Ivask, 64, internationally known author and critic who founded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. An Estonian who emigrated to the United States at 16, Ivask was fiercely defensive about his adopted state of Oklahoma, considering cliches about the state’s cultural assets as “snobbery.” He retired last year from the University of Oklahoma, where he was editor and director of the World Literature Today journal. Ivask set up the Neustadt Prize in 1969, and every two years presented it with a cash award of $40,000. Fifteen winners of the Neustadt went on to win Nobel Prizes in Literature. On Wednesday in Ireland.