Slow Train Coming: Dylan in Stockholm to accept Nobel
STOCKHOLM - After months of controversy, Bob Dylan is in Stockholm to finally grab his Nobel literature prize in a meeting with the Swedish Academy, which awarded him for his poetry.
The first songwriter to receive the prestigious award, Dylan has joined the league of Nobel laureates including Thomas Mann, Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Doris Lessing.
At a secret time and place, the famously reclusive Dylan is to receive his Nobel diploma and medal in a closed meeting with the members of the Swedish Academy, which elects the winners of the literature prize.
"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," Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Academy said in a blog post.
He is set to perform concerts on Saturday and Sunday in Stockholm, the first stop on a long-planned European tour.
But the 75-year-old rock enigma will not give his traditional Nobel lecture during the meeting, the only requirement to receive the eight million kronor (836,000 euros, $895,000) that comes with the prize.
"If you want something to go towards a certain direction, then he will go towards the opposite direction. This is what he's done in his entire career," Martin Nystrom, a music critic at the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, told AFP.
"He's very unpredictable."