Opinion was divided when it was announced that the singer/songwriter Bob Dylan would be awarded the Nobel prize for literature back in October of last year. Further controversy was caused when Dylan failed to pick up the award or give the lecture that’s required in order to receive the prize and the 8 million kroner ($900,000/£727,000) that goes with it.
As the BBC reports, it has now been announced by the academy that it has arranged to meet Dylan privately in the Swedish capital of Stockholm where he is set to perform a concert. Dylan will not be giving a lecture in person but will apparently record one.
Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Prof Sara Danius, said in a blog post:
“The good news is that the Swedish Academy and Bob Dylan have decided to meet this weekend. The Academy will then hand over Dylan’s Nobel diploma and the Nobel medal, and congratulate him on the Nobel Prize in Literature. The setting will be small and intimate, and no media will be present; only Bob Dylan and members of the Academy will attend, all according to Dylan’s wishes.”
Dylan will not be the first winner to deliver a taped lecture. 2013’s winner, Alice Munro, did the same. Dylan is the first song writer to win the award and the first American since Toni Morrison won in 1993.
Eyebrows were raised when it took more than two weeks for Dylan to make any sort of public comment on winning the prize and he did not attend the ceremony in December. Dylan has since stated that the honour left him “speechless”.
10 of 2024’s Most Anticipated Reads
The For Reading Addicts Book of the Year 2023
Birmingham Poet, Benjamin Zephaniah dies, aged 65
Top Authors Join Legal Battle Against OpenAI for Mass Copyright Infringement
New Children’s Book Reveals the Black History of the UK