American literature is “too isolated, too insular”

The permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Horace Engdahl, said these words about whether an American could win the Nobel Prize of Literature:

“The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature,” Engdahl said. “That ignorance is restraining.”

What are your thoughts? Do you agree to an extent or disagree completely? What contemporary American writings would you recommend that rebuke Engdahl’s idea of American literature? I have to admit that I have been so immersed reading theology and philosophy lately that I have not been able to immerse in fiction, so I cannot make an informed judgment about his statement. I enjoy Flannery O’ Connor, for instance, but I am wondering about contemporary American novels or poetry, for that matter. My favorite literature will always be, however, Latin American. Nobel-prize winner Gabriel García Márquez remains one of my favorites novelists along with Isabel Allende and the late poet Pablo Neruda. The late Venezuelan novelist, Rómulo Gallegos is excellent as well.