No Nobel Prize in Literature 2018

Eric Tagesson

There will be no Noble prize in literature in 2018.

Due to the ”reduced public confidence in the Academy”  they have chosen to declare a reserved prize.

Instead the prize will be announced double next year.

Due to the last couple of months’ turbulence, and the ”currently diminished Academy” the  Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 will not be announced until next year, the Academy says in a press release today.

”In agreement”

According to the press release the active members of the Swedish Academy are in agreement that, ”without compromising the Academy’s purpose and to retain respect for its unique historical legacy, the Academy’s operative practices need to be evolved.”

–  The active members of the Swedish Academy are of course fully aware that the present crisis of confidence places high demands on a long-term and robust work for change. We find it necessary to commit time to recovering public confidence in the Academy before the next laureate can be announced. This, out of respect for previous and future literature laureates, the Nobel Foundation, and the general public, says Anders Olsson, interim Permanent Secretary. 

The Academy, the press release says, needs time to regain its full complement, engage a larger number of active members and regain confidence in its work, before the next Literature Prize winner is declared. 

Will be announced next year

Instead of announcing the prize this year the Swedish Academy intends to decide on and announce the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 in parallel with the naming of the 2019 laureate.

Seven times previously, the Swedish Academy has chosen to declare a “reserved prize”: in 1915, 1919, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1936 and 1949. On five of those occasions, the prize was delayed then awarded at the same time as the following year’s prize.