Nobel Literature prize to be announced October 11

Japanese writer Haruki Murakami speaks during a ceremony where he was awarded the ''XXIII Premi Internacional Catalunya'' prize in Barcelona, June 9, 2011.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The 2012 Nobel Literature Prize will be announced at 1100 GMT on Thursday, organizers said, with Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami the bookmakers' favorite to win the 8 million crown ($1.2 million) award.

Other hotly-tipped names include Bob Dylan, Chinese writer Mo Yan and reclusive U.S. novelist Thomas Pynchon.

Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer won last year, pleasing many in the prize's homeland which had not celebrated a winner since Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson took home the prize in 1974.

Past winners include U.S. writer William Faulkner, France's Albert Camus and Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The last Japanese writer to win the prize was Kenzaburo Oe in 1994.

The award-giving body The Swedish Academy, which announced the date of the literature prize on Monday, is due to announce the winners of its coveted science prizes this week.

($1 = 6.5846 Swedish crowns)

(The story corrects year to 1994 from 1984 in paragraph 4.)

(Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Andrew Heavens)