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Bob Dylan has decided to pick up his Nobel Prize

By | Published on Thursday 30 March 2017

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan will collect his Nobel Prize chequebook and pen this week, it has been announced. Although it’s still not clear if he’ll jump through the necessary hoops to get an actual signed cheque from the Nobel gang.

As previously reported, Dylan is due in Stockholm this weekend to perform two concerts. However, Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awarded the musician its Nobel Prize In Literature last year, said in a blog post earlier this week that Dylan had not yet been in touch about collecting his as yet uncollected award. Seemingly that jogged his memory about that whole Nobel Prize thing.

“The Swedish Academy and Bob Dylan have decided to meet this weekend”, said Danius in a new blog post yesterday. “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”.

If an award is handed over and there is no one from the media there to report on it, does it really happen? Well, I suppose it might. Anyway, there’s still the matter of that lecture. As per the rules, Dylan will only receive his $900,000 prize money if he gives a lecture “relevant to the work for which the prize has been awarded” before 10 Jun. Not to worry though, it’s all in hand.

Although Danius notes that “no Nobel Lecture will be held” while Dylan is in town this weekend, she says that “the Academy has reason to believe that a taped version will be sent at a later point”.

This is not unprecedented. Writer Alice Munro provided a pre-recorded interview in place of travelling to Sweden in 2013. The then 82 year old she said that she was unable to travel to Sweden from Canada due to health problems. In case you forgot, Bob Dylan will be in Stockholm this weekend. It’s nearly six months since he was announced as the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize In Literature.



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