STOCKHOLM // Bob Dylan got the Nobel Literature prize-giving he wished for on Saturday, finally receiving his diploma and medal in a private ceremony in Stockholm a world away from the media storm the award has generated.
The Swedish Academy that hands out the Nobels said on Wednesday the media-shy singer-songwriter would get the prize in the “small and intimate setting” he requested while in the city on a two-concert tour.
Swedish TV channel SVT said Academy members confirmed it was handed over to Dylan, 75, on Saturday. “It happened in great secrecy,” the channel said on its website.
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
The award divided opinion when it was announced, drawing more mixed publicity when Dylan stayed silent about it for weeks. He later expressed awe at receiving the prize and thanked the Swedish Academy for including him among the “giants” of writing. However he declined to attend December’s annual Nobel banquet, pleading other commitments.
Swedish Academy secretary Sara Danius said earlier this week that Dylan would not give the traditional Nobel lecture this weekend, but that a taped version would probably be sent later.
In order to receive the prize of 8 million Swedish crowns (Dh3.28m), Dylan needs to give a lecture within six months of the award presentation ceremony held on December 10.
Taped Nobel lectures are occasionally presented, most recently in 2013 by Canadian Nobel literature laureate Alice Munro.
Dylan was performing concerts on Saturday and Sunday in Stockholm, the first stop on a long-planned European tour for his latest album of cover songs, Triplicate. Besides Stockholm, Dylan is also playing in the south-western city of Lund on April 9.
* Reuters and Associated Press