STOCKHOLM: Music icon Bob Dylan will finally receive his Nobel Literature Prize this weekend at a meeting with the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, it announced Wednesday. But no media will be allowed to cover the meeting, and the famously-reclusive Dylan will only give a lecture required of him in a taped version at a later date.

The 75-year-old kept silent for weeks after he was announced as the Nobel literature laureate in October, and snubbed a ceremony in December to receive the prize.

“The good news is that the Swedish Academy and Bob Dylan have decided to meet this weekend,” Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Academy, wrote in a blog post. “The Academy will then hand over Dylan’s Nobel diploma and the Nobel medal, and congratulate him on the Nobel Prize in Literature.” But Dylan, the first songwriter to win the prestigious prize, will not hold the traditional Nobel lecture during the meeting, she said. Because the lecture is the only requirement to receive the eight million kronor ($870,000) that comes with the prize, Dylan will not be handed the money during his Stockholm visit, even though he will collect the Nobel diploma and medal.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2017