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Dylan shuns Nobel award ceremony

Dylan skipped the formal presentation of his Nobel.

Dylan skipped the formal presentation of his Nobel. Photo: AAP

Bob Dylan won’t be going to Stockholm to pick up his 2016 Nobel Prize for literature at the December 10 prize ceremony, the Swedish Academy says.

The Academy said on Wednesday that Dylan had told them “he wishes he could receive the prize personally, but other commitments make it unfortunately impossible”.

nobel prize literature

The Nobel Prize for Literature. Photo: Nobel Organisation

The 75-year-old American singer-songwriter was awarded the prize on October 13 “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.

The literature prize and five other Nobel Prizes will be officially conferred upon winners in Stockholm next month on the anniversary of award founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

The Academy said it “respects Bob Dylan’s decision”, adding that it was “unusual, but not exceptional” to skip the award ceremony.

Other Literature laureates have been no-shows. Most recently, in 2004, Austrian playwright and novelist Elfriede Jelinek stayed home, citing a social phobia.

“The award is still theirs, as it now belongs to Bob Dylan,” the Academy said.

“We are looking forward to Bob Dylan’s Nobel lecture, which he must hold, according to the requirements, within six months” from December 10.

Meanwhile, Australian author, poet and critic, Clive James, has said he believed Canadian singer-songwriter, Leonard Cohen, would have been a more worthy recipient of the Nobel Prize.

“I’ve got a feeling that Dylan probably feels the same, because Cohen was the perfect literary songwriter,” James told the ABC’s PM program on Wednesday.

Cohen died last week after a six-decade career career in literature and music.

James said he was pleased Dylan was recognised as a literary giant, although he thought Cohen should have won the award.

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