The Swedish Academy Compromises with the Nobel Foundation

Hello Gentle Reader

The Swedish Academy has not only been bitterly divided internally, due to the spring sexual assault scandal, but also with the Nobel Foundation. As the scandal erupted and the Swedish Academy blew into disarray, the Nobel Foundation observed with concern, before deciding to see if it could help mediate and mitigate the crisis. The Swedish Academy immediately rebuked the offer of assistance, forcing the Nobel Foundation take a different stance with the crisis, where it applied pressure to the Swedish Academy to either straighten its affairs, or have the Nobel Prize stripped from it as an institution.

Initially the Nobel Foundation expressed concern for the Swedish Academy to maintain the integrity of the Nobel Prize for Literature, while it worked to reestablish its own reputation. The Nobel Foundation had expressed concern the scandal would tarnish and if not completely deprive the award of its own merit; therefore, the Nobel Foundation proposed to the Swedish Academy that a temporary Nobel Committee would be enacted to create a shortlist of potential winners for the Nobel Prize for Literature, which would allow the Swedish Academy to rectify and rebuild itself after the scandal. Not surprisingly the Swedish Academy rejected this offer.

Today, however, Gentle Reader the Swedish Academy has come to a compromise with the Nobel Foundation, they will allow an extra five external members to sit on the Nobel Committee to help them select a shortlist of authors who may receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. This temporary extension of the Nobel Committee is as follows:

The initial Nobel Committee:

Chairman – Per Wastberg

(pro-tempore) Permanent Secretary – Anders Olsson

Horace Engdahl

Kristina Lugn

Jesper Svenbro

The new external members are:

Mikaela Blomqvist (literary critic)

Rebecka Karde (literary critic)

Kristoffer Leandoer (literary critic and writer)

Gun-Britt Sundstrom (translator)

Henrik Petersen (publisher)

This temporary Nobel committee will not begin work until January of 2019, and is set to stay in place until 2020.

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

Take Care

And As Always

Stay Well Read

M. Mary


For Further Reading --

CBC: "Outsiders join Swedish Academy to pick Nobel Literature winners,"