The 2018 prize has been postponed until 2019 due to sexual abuse allegations made against the husband of a former member of the Swedish Academy, poet Katarina Frostenson, reports Bloomberg. The academy has commissioned lawyers to investigate sexual misconduct claims from 18 women against Jean-Claude Arnault, Frostenson’s husband and a major cultural figure in Sweden. As a result, it was the Swedish Academy, which oversees the Nobel Prize in literature prize, and not the Nobel Foundation itself, that made the decision to not announce a prize winner this year.
That’s not to say a 2018 Nobel Prize in literature won’t be awarded, however. The announcement of the winner will just be postponed until 2019, when two Nobel Prizes in literature will be awarded, one for each year. In a statement, the Nobel Foundation said it agreed with the Swedish Academy’s decision to postpone the prize:
In principle, the Nobel Prize shall be awarded every year, but decisions on Nobel Prizes have been postponed on a number of occasions during the history of the prizes. One of the circumstances that may justify an exception is when a situation in a prize-awarding institution arises that is so serious that a prize decision will not be perceived as credible.
The crisis in the Swedish Academy has adversely affected the Nobel Prize. Their decision underscores the seriousness of the situation and will help safeguard the long-term reputation of the Nobel Prize. None of this impacts the awarding of the 2018 Nobel Prizes in other prize categories.
The Nobel Foundation presumes that the Swedish Academy will now put all its efforts into the task of restoring its credibility as a prize-awarding institution and that the Academy will report the concrete actions that are undertaken. We also assume that all members of the Academy realise that both its extensive reform efforts and its future organisational structure must be characterised by greater openness towards the outside world.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2018 has been postponed. The Nobel Foundation supports the Swedish Academy’s decision. Press release: https://t.co/eayNN3YgYv
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) May 4, 2018
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