Shen Congwen
Shen Congwen was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Jeffrey Kinkley nominated Shen for the prize first in 1980 after returning from a trip to China where he interviewed the aging writer. He wrote to Swedish sinologist Göran Malmqvist inviting him to join the nomination. Later, in 1988 Malmqvist had become a member of the Swedish Academy and Shen made the list of finalists for the prize. Shen Congwen died later that year, before the prize could be awarded to him. He would have been the first Chinese writer to receive the award.