Bob Dylan’s Nobel response is no longer blowin’ in the wind
Songwriter breaks his silence over literature prize
STOCKHOLM // Bob Dylan will accept this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature and attend the award ceremony in December.
The 75-year-old singer-songwriter was announced as the winner two weeks ago but failed to make a comment about it, leading to a member of the Swedish Academy calling his silence “impolite and arrogant”.
Dylan was nominated for creating “new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
“It’s hard to believe,” the US singer-songwriter told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper on Friday. “Whoever dreams about something like that?”
Asked if he would attend the Nobel Prize winners’ banquet, hosted by Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf, Dylan said: “Absolutely. If it’s at all possible.” The academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said Dylan himself had contacted them and said “of course” he would accept the prize. “The news about the Nobel Prize left me speechless,” Dylan said, according to the academy’s website. “I appreciate the honour so much.”
Dylan, whose lyrics have influenced generations of fans, is the first songwriter to win the literature prize.
He has accepted many awards over the years, including the American presidential medal of freedom, for which he attended a White House ceremony in 2012. But he also has a history of taking his time acknowledging the awards.
In 2013, he became the first rock star voted into the elite American Academy of Arts and Letters, which made him an honorary member.
According to executive director Virginia Dajani, the academy informed Dylan of the decision in January that year and he did not respond until May 2013.