Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has finally agreed to receive his Nobel Literature Prize diploma and medal over the next few days in Stockholm, where he is due to perform this weekend. The Secretary of the Swedish Academy announced this on a blogpost on Wednesday, adding that the ceremony will be a small one.
“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,” the post read.
Dylan is due to perform in Stockholm on April 1 and April 2, and also appear for another concert in the southern Swedish city of Lund on April 9. His Nobel Prize was announced in October last year because he “created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
Soon after the announcement, Dylan told The Rolling Stones that he was speechless about his win. “It’s hard to believe,” he said, and admitted he hasn’t thought much about whether he’s worthy of the Nobel Prize for Literature. “I’ll let other people decide. The academics, they ought to know. I’m not really qualified. I don’t have any opinion.”
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A usually media-shy performer, the Academy hadn’t heard from Dylan for a long time when the prize was announced. While some people openly wondered if he would accept the prize, in December, Azita Raji, the United States’ Ambassador to Sweden, accepted it on his behalf.
Raji also read Dylan’s acceptance speech at a dinner in Stockholm around that time. Dylan wrote: “If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I’d have about the same odds as standing on the moon.”
Pic: The Odyssey Online