Swedish Academy says will postpone 2018 Nobel literature prize award

No Nobel Prize for literature will be given this year, following a scandal over sexual misconduct allegations that has seen a string of board members resign from the board of the Swedish Academy that awards it, the Nobel Foundation said on Friday. "The present decision was arrived at in view of the currently diminished Academy and the reduced public confidence in the Academy,"it said in a statement. "Work on the selection of a laureate is at an advanced stage and will continue as usual in the months ahead but the Academy 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." The Academy said it aimed to award two prizes in 2019. The council of prestigious authors and linguists has been dealing with the fallout of allegations of sexual misconduct by the husband of one of its members and of the leaks of names of some prize-winners ahead of the formal announcements. Its members, elected for life, award the Nobel Prize for Literature each year. Past winners include Bob Dylan (2016), Doris Lessing (2007) and Samuel Beckett (1969). The controversy have prompted calls for the secretive institution to become more transparent. Photographer and cultural figure Jean-Claude Arnault, who is married to Academy member and author Katarina Frostenson, denies all allegations, regarding both sexual misconduct and leaking the names of laureates, his lawyer told Reuters on Thursday. A postponement or cancellation of the prize is rare but not unprecedented. There were no awards between 1940 and 1943, due to World War II, while the American novelist William Faulkner received his prize a year late in 1950 when two prizes were handed out. The rules of the foundation that administers the will of dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel mean prizes can be reserved until the following year. Six of the Academy’s 18 members have stepped down following the controversy that surfaced late last year while two other members were already not participating in the Academy’s work for other reasons. The Swedish Academy said in a statement last month that it was suffering a serious crisis and acknowledged that trust in the institution, established by King Gustav III in 1786 and still under royal patronage, had been undermined. Other Swedish institutions award the Nobel prizes for science. The peace prize winners are chosen by a Norwegian committee.