Nobel prize for literature could be suspended for more than a year

Nobel Foundation director says issues at the Swedish Academy, which picks the winner, must be solved before award can be restored

The Nobel prize for literature will not be awarded in 2019 unless trust is restored in the scandal-plagued Swedish Academy, the Nobel Foundation’s executive director has revealed. His admission came just weeks after the 2018 prize was called off in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct, financial malpractice and repeated leaks.

On 4 May, the Swedish Academy – which decides on the winner of the world’s top literary award – announced that it would not be handing out a Nobel prize for literature in 2018, after a series of allegations of sexual harassment and abuse were made against the husband of academy member Katarina Frostenson. The way the academy handled the allegations, which have been denied by Frostenson’s husband, the photographer Jean-Claude Arnault, led to several resignations, leaving it with just 10 active members – with 12 required to elect new ones. In order to “commit time to recovering public confidence”, the academy said that it would instead create two laureates in 2019.

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