Music icon Bob Dylan is expected to come to Stockholm next spring, as the winner of this year’s Nobel prize in literature will skip the award ceremony in December, a Swedish academy member said on Friday.
Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, told public Swedish radio that she received confirmation from Dylan’s manager.
“Then he will have an excellent opportunity to hold his lecture,” Danius said. Holding a lecture is the only requirement for the Nobel laureate and must be done within six months starting from December 10.
The Swedish Academy said the American song writer might perform in the Nordic nation next year.
“There is a chance that Bob Dylan will be performing in Stockholm next year, possibly in the spring, in which case he will have a perfect opportunity to deliver his lecture,” it said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the academy announced that Dylan would skip the Nobel ceremony because of “pre-existing” commitments.
“He wishes that he could accept the award personally, but other commitments make it, unfortunately, impossible. He underlined that he feels incredibly honoured by the Nobel prize,” it said.
Asked on October 28 by Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper if he would attend the Nobel prize winners’ banquet, Dylan said: “Absolutely. If it’s at all possible.”
But the American song writer’s decision not to attend the Nobel ceremony does not come as a surprise.
The 75-year-old didn’t say a word about his prize on the day it was announced on October 13 when he was performing in Las Vegas.
Dylan, whose lyrics have influenced generations of fans, is the first songwriter to win the literature prize, although experts bet on writers such as Salman Rushdie, Adonis or Ngugi was Thiong’o.
Nobel laureates are honoured every year on December 10 — the anniversary of the death of prize’s founder Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist, inventor and philanthropist.
Several other literature prize winners have skipped the Nobel ceremony in the past for various reasons — Doris Lessing on grounds of ill health, Harold Pinter because he was hospitalised and Elfriede Jelinek due to social phobia.
The value of the prestigious award this year amounts to 8 million kronor ($870,000).