Bob Dylan Will Finally Accept His Nobel Prize This Weekend

The singer-songwriter will be in Sweden for two shows.
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After skipping the official Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden last December, Bob Dylan will finally accept his award for literature this weekend.

The singer-songwriter will travel to Sweden this weekend, where he’ll perform two concerts.

“The Swedish Academy is very much looking forward to the weekend and will show up at one of the performances,” Nobel spokesperson Sara Danius said in a statement Wednesday.

At one of the shows, “The Academy will then hand over Dylan’s Nobel diploma and the Nobel medal, and congratulate him on the Nobel Prize in Literature. The setting will be small and intimate, and no media will be present; only Bob Dylan and members of the Academy will attend, all according to Dylan’s wishes.”

The Grammy winner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature last October, stirring up plenty of debates in the literary world about whether or not a songwriter deserved the recognition. Dylan himself didn’t acknowledge the honor for nearly two weeks, which a Swedish Academy member called “impolite and arrogant.”

Eventually, the folk singer told The Telegraph the win was, “amazing, incredible. Who dreams about something like that?”

Dylan did not attend the official ceremony due to scheduling conflicts, and he has yet to deliver his required lecture (which must be given within six months of receiving the honor). He did, however, provide a “speech of thanks” for the award and plans to give a recorded version of his lecture “at a later date,” according to Rolling Stone.

At the ceremony, he was honored with a tribute performance by Patti Smith and a speech from Swedish literary historian and critic Horace Engdahl. At a banquet afterward, U.S. ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji read Dylan’s prepared acceptance statement.

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Horace Engdahl read Bob Dylan’s acceptance statement. In fact, Engdahl gave his own remarks, and the U.S. ambassador to Sweden read Dylan’s statement.

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