Nobel Prize committee officials remain confident Bob Dylan will attend their annual ceremony to accept his Literature honour, even though he has yet to respond to their invitation.
The celebrated folk-rocker was named the recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday when he was praised for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
All of the Nobel Prize winners are traditionally celebrated at the end-of-year Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, but officials at the Swedish Academy, the organisation which decides the honourees, are still waiting to hear from Dylan.
According to The Guardian, Professor Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, told state radio, “Right now we are doing nothing (to chase Dylan up). I have called and sent emails to his closest collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is certainly enough.”
And Danius is staying positive about Dylan’s appearance.
“I am not at all worried,” she continued, adding, “I think he will show up. (But) if he doesn’t want to come, he won’t come. It will be a big party in any case and the honour belongs to him.”
Dylan himself has yet to comment on his prestigious win, the first awarded to a contemporary rock musician and the first to celebrate songwriting.
However, the musician has been a little busy – on Friday, he returned to the Desert Trip festival in Indio, California for a second weekend, after opening the new event on 7 October (16). He shared the stage on both nights with the Rolling Stones.
Paul McCartney and Neil Young headlined Saturday’s (15Oct16) show, while Roger Waters and The Who hit the stage and closed the festival on Sunday (16Oct16), just as they did last weekend.
