Swedish Academy to announce Friday whether it will delay Nobel literature prize

[May 03, 2018]   STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The Swedish Academy will announce on Friday whether or not it will postpone awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature this year following a controversy over alleged sexual misconduct that has seen a string of board members leave the institution.

It is very rare for the award of Nobel prizes to be canceled or postponed. The last time the literature prize was not awarded was in 1943, at the height of World War Two.

"The members who are at the meeting this evening will decide," Swedish Academy official Louise Hedberg told Reuters.

"We will make a decision which will be published in a press release tomorrow around 0900 (CET)."

The date for this year's award has not yet been announced, though it always occurs in the first half of October in conjunction with the presentation of winners in other fields.

The Swedish Academy, a council of prestigious authors and linguists tasked with furthering the Swedish language, has been dealing with the fallout of allegations of sexual misconduct by the husband of one of its members and leaks of names of some prize-winners ahead of the formal announcements.

Its members, elected for life, award the Nobel Prize for Literature each year. Past winners include Bob Dylan (2016), Doris Lessing (2007) and Samuel Beckett (1969). The controversy have prompted calls for the secretive institution to become more transparent.

Photographer and cultural figure Jean-Claude Arnault, who is married to Academy member and author Katarina Frostenson, has denied all allegations, both of sexual misconduct and of leaking the names of the laureates.

Six of the Academy's 18 members have stepped down following the controversy that surfaced late last year while two other members were already not participating in the Academy's work for other reasons.

The Swedish Academy said in a statement last month that it was suffering a serious crisis and acknowledged that trust in the institution, established by King Gustav III in 1786 and still under royal patronage, had been undermined.

Other Swedish institutions award the Nobel prizes for science. The peace prize winners are chosen by a Norwegian committee.

(Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Simon Johnson; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
 

[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.