The Swedish Academy will present two Nobel Prizes in Literature this year
The Swedish Academy will award two Literature Nobel Prizes in 2019, one corresponding to this year and another to the one postponed in 2018 for the scandal of leaks and abuses in the institution, confirmed today its interim secretary, Anders Olsson.
"There will be two Nobel prizes as we expected, the prize reserved last year will also be ruled out," Olsson told the digital edition of the newspaper "Dagens Nyheter", the main Swedish newspaper, at the end of a meeting of the board of directors of the Nobel Foundation.
The academyhad announced in May the postponement of the Literature Nobel, something that was not produced for seven decades, by the loss of "confidence" of the outside world in the institution itself, due to the crisis that has led to the resignation of half a dozen members.
The institution that awards the prize each year had then shown its intention to deliver two in 2019, although the final decision was in the hands of the Nobel Foundation, which demanded reforms in the operation of the academy to accept that solution.
"I am very happy to receive that message today, which also implies that we can work with tranquility with the prizes and that all members of the Nobel Committee will be more motivated for that work, "Olsson told the Swedish news agency TT.
Eighteen women denounced in November 2017 in "Dagens Nyheter" abuses of a "cultural personality" next to the Swedish Academy, later identified as the French artist Jean-Claude Arnault, husband of the poet and academic Katarina Frostenson.
The institution cut the relationship and commissioned an audit, which concluded that leaks had occurred and that the financial support received by the literary club that Arnault ran violated the rules of impartiality as his wife co-owner.
The disagreement over the measures to be taken and the situation of Frostenson triggered a wave of resignations, exchange of accusations between two opposing sides and the postponement for the first time in seven decades of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Those who left the institution include her then permanent secretary, Sara Danius, who last week announced her definitive departure ten months after leaving office.
The Swedish Academy has promoted in recent months several amendments to its statutes and elected five new members.
Arnault was sentenced in December by the Stockholm Court of Appeal to two and a half years in jail for two cases of rape of a woman in October 2011, although he has appealed to the Supreme Court. EFE
