STOCKHOLM: The Swedish Academy named two new members on Friday as part of efforts to rebuild the scandal-hit institution and ensure it can return to its function of selecting the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
For the first time in decades, this year’s line-up of Nobel prizes does not feature a literature award after a rape scandal saw a string of members resign or withdraw from the Academy’s work in protest, leaving it unable to decide on a winner.
The Academy said in a statement it had appointed Eric Runesson, a Swedish supreme court judge, and Iranian-born novelist and poet Jila Mossaed as new members.
There had been calls for the resignation of Academy member Katarina Frostenson, who is married to the man at the center of the scandal, but the issue was not mentioned in the statement.
Her husband Jean-Claude Arnault was sentenced to two years in prison for rape on Monday. He has denied all allegations against him and is appealing the verdict.
The head of the Nobel Foundation told Reuters last week it could drop the Academy from awarding the literature prize if it did not make further changes in the wake of the scandal.
